A hydrogen gas-water equilibration method produces accurate and precise stable hydrogen isotope ratio measurements in nutrition studies.

Stable hydrogen isotope methodology is used in nutrition studies to measure growth, breast milk intake, and energy requirement. Isotope ratio MS is the best instrumentation to measure the stable hydrogen isotope ratios in physiological fluids. Conventional methods to convert physiological fluids to hydrogen gas (H(2)) for mass spectrometric analysis are labor intensive, require special reagent, and involve memory effect and potential isotope fractionation. The objective of this study was to determine the accuracy and precision of a platinum catalyzed H(2)-water equilibration method for stable hydrogen isotope ratio measurements. Time to reach isotopic equilibrium, day-to-day and week-to-week reproducibility, accuracy, and precision of stable hydrogen isotope ratio measurements by the H(2)-water equilibration method were assessed using a Thermo DELTA V Advantage continuous-flow isotope ratio mass spectrometer. It took 3 h to reach isotopic equilibrium. The day-to-day and week-to-week measurements on water and urine samples with natural abundance and enriched levels of deuterium were highly reproducible. The method was accurate to within 2.8 (o)/oo and reproducible to within 4.0 (o)/oo based on analysis of international references. All the outcome variables, whether in urine samples collected in 10 doubly labeled water studies or plasma samples collected in 26 body water studies, did not differ from those obtained using the reference zinc reduction method. The method produced highly accurate estimation on ad libitum energy intakes, body composition, and water turnover rates. The method greatly reduces the analytical cost and could easily be adopted by laboratories equipped with a continuous-flow isotope ratio mass spectrometer.