Evaluation of tandem offline and online solid-phase extraction with liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry for the analysis of antibiotics in ambient water and comparision to an independent method

This report describes the performance of an offline tandem solid-phase extraction (SPE) method and an online SPE method that use liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry for the analysis of 23 and 35 antibiotics, respectively, as used in several water-quality surveys conducted since 1999. In the offline tandem SPE method, normalized concentrations for the quinolone, macrolide, and sulfonamide antibiotics in spiked environmental samples averaged from 81 to 139 percent of the expected spiked concentrations. A modified standard-addition technique was developed to improve the quantitation of the tetracycline antibiotics, which had 'apparent' concentrations that ranged from 185 to 1,200 percent of their expected spiked concentrations in matrix-spiked samples. In the online SPE method, normalized concentrations for the quinolone, macrolide, sulfonamide, and tetracycline antibiotics in matrix-spiked samples averaged from 51 to 142 percent of their expected spiked concentrations, and the beta-lactam antibiotics in matrix-spiked samples averaged from 22 to 76 percent of their expected spiked concentration.

Comparison of 44 samples analyzed by both the offline tandem SPE and online SPE methods showed 50 to 100 percent agreement in sample detection for overlapping analytes and 68 to 100 percent agreement in a presence-absence comparison for all analytes. The offline tandem and online SPE methods were compared to an independent method that contains two overlapping antibiotic compounds, sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim, for 96 and 44 environmental samples, respectively. The offline tandem SPE showed 86 and 92 percent agreement in sample detection and 96 and 98 percent agreement in a presence-absence comparison for sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim, respectively. The online SPE method showed 57 and 56 percent agreement in sample detection and 72 and 91 percent agreement in presence-absence comparison for sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim, respectively. A linear regression with an R2 of 0.91 was obtained for trimethoprim concentrations, and an R2 of 0.35 was obtained for sulfamethoxazole concentrations determined from samples analyzed by the offline tandem SPE and online SPE methods.

Linear regressions of trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole concentrations determined from samples analyzed by the offline tandem SPE method and the independent M3 pharmaceutical method yielded R2 of 0.95 and 0.87, respectively. Regressed comparison of the offline tandem SPE method to the online SPE and M3 methods showed that the online SPE method gave higher concentrations for sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim than were obtained from the offline tandem SPE or M3 methods.