Determination of polychlorinated biphenyls in human blood serum by SPME

We report a direct immersion SPME - GC/μECD method for the determination of non-volatile pollutants (Aroclor 1254) in human blood plasma using an enzymatic proteolytic approach to overcome the protein fouling problem. A nonspecific serine protease, Proteinase K, is used to remove the fouling interference. Significant improvement in relative repeatability from 28.9% to 3.4% (n=10) was obtained. Analyte recovery up to 93 % and detection limit of 1.0 ppb (total PCB) were achieved.