[Determination of urinary cotinine of children exposed to passive smoking by stable isotope dilution gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry].

An analytical method for the determination of urinary cotinine of children exposed to passive smoking was established based on stable isotope dilution by gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). The samples were extracted and purified with chloroform. The extracts were determined by GC-MS/MS in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The cotinine-d3 as an isotope internal standard was applied to quantify and confirm the urinary cotinine of children exposed to passive smoking. The method had a good linearity from 0.1 microg/L to 10 microg/L with the correlation coefficient (r) > 0.998. The recoveries of the cotinine in blank urine were from 79.2% to 112.8% at spiked levels of 0.1, 1.0 and 10 microg/ L, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) from 2.1% to 5. 8%. The limit of quantification ( LOQ) of the method was 0.1 microg/L. The developed method is accurate, sensitive, rapid and can be applied to detect urinary cotinine of children exposed to passive smoking at home.