Biomedical applications of vapor phase analysis.

Recent investigations of physiological systems have demonstrated that even minor chemical constituents can play a major role in mediating physiological responses. Recognizing this, the investigator seeks to isolate or selectively quantify the concentration of a specific drug or hormone that is available to target tissue. Today, as drugs are developed which are more and more potent, greater demands are made on analytical methodology for ever more sensitive yet specific techniques of quanification. The techniques of vapor phase analysis such as gas chromatography, especially in combination with mass spectrometry, offer great promise to investigative pharmacology/toxicology. Some of the potentials and limitations of vapor phase analysis will be described. More detailed descriptions of basic gas chromatography (McNair and Bonelli, 1969; Ettre and McFadden, 1969) and combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (McFadden, 1973) can be found elsewhere.