Determination of cyanide and volatile alkylnitriles in whole blood by headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography with nitrogen phosphorus detection

Simultaneous determination of cyanide and volatile alkylnitriles such as acetonitrile, cis- and trans-crotononitrile, allylnitrile and butyronitrile at low ppb concentration on whole blood (rat and mice) by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) followed by gas chromatography (GC) with nitrogen phosphorus detection has been achieved for the first time. SPME extraction time and temperature were optimized using a star experimental design. Optimum conditions for cyanide extraction were chosen to analyze unspiked blood samples containing alkylnitriles as that analyte occurs at the lowest concentrations. For all analytes, the developed methodology yielded good quality parameters. In all cases, good reproducibility (relative standard deviation < or =12%), detection limits (<3ng mL(-1)) and quantification limits (<4 ng mL(-1)) were recorded.