Simultaneous determination of urinary creatinine and metabolites of toluene, xylene, styrene, ethylbenzene and phenol by automated high performance liquid chromatography.

An attempt was made to establish a method for the direct determination of urinary concentrations of creatinine, hippuric acid, methylhippuric acid and mandelic acid by automated high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Urine was diluted with distilled water or mobile phase, then the mixture was centrifuged and the supernatant was injected into HPLC. A stainless-steel column packed with octadecyl silanized silicate was used, and the mobile phase was a solution of [20 mM potassium phosphate monobasic containing 3 mM sodium 1-decanesulfonate]/acetonitrile (85/15). Another HPLC method for the determination of urinary concentration of phenol, metabolites of benzene and/or phenol is also described. Phenyl sulfate and phenyl glucuronide in urine were hydrolyzed enzymatically into phenol. The hydrolyzed mixture was injected into HPLC with the ODS column. The mobile phase was a solution of [20 mM potassium phosphate monobasic containing 1 mM sodium 1-decanesulfonate]/acetonitrile (85/15). The ratio of hippuric acid (HA) concentration to creatinine concentration determined by the urine of students after physical exercise was similar to that before exercise. Moreover, the coefficient of correlation found between the toluene concentration in a workshop and the HA concentration in workers' urine, corrected for creatinine, was higher than that obtained between the toluene concentration and the uncorrected HA concentration. For assays on stored urine samples, urine was spotted on filter paper, dried and kept several weeks, and then MA, HA, o-MHA, m-MHA and creatinine in the filter paper were eluted with 50% methanol and their concentrations determined by HPLC.