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Characterization of acylcarnitines as their isobutyl ester derivatives using fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry and constant neutral loss scan
Author(s) -
Cheng K. N.,
Rosankiewicz J.,
Tracey B. M.,
Chalmers R. A.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
biomedical and environmental mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9888
pISSN - 0887-6134
DOI - 10.1002/bms.1200180906
Subject(s) - chemistry , fast atom bombardment , mass spectrometry , fragmentation (computing) , metastability , chromatography , ion , mass spectrum , analytical chemistry (journal) , organic chemistry , computer science , operating system
A simple method is described for the characterization of acylcarnitines by fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry in combination with constant neutral loss (CNL) scan. Acylcarnitines in urine are extracted using cation‐exchange chromatography and derivatized to their isobutyl esters. The fragmentation patterns of these compounds are studied by various linked‐scan methods including B/E , B 2 / E and B/E √(1 – E ) scans. Acylcarnitine isobutyl esters are found to lose two specific neutral fragments simultaneously so that a CNL scan of the combined mass produces a much enhanced spectrum without most of the background peaks. An example is given in which the CNL scan is used to diagnose a patient with medium‐chain acyl CoA dehydrogenase deficiency. The use of linked‐scan techniques to monitor a specific metastable ion transition can be exploited for characterizing structurally related compounds and therefore the technique reported in this paper may have much wider applications to mixture analysis.