rapid monitoring method of paraquat and diquat in serum and urine using ion-pairing bare-silica stationary phase HPLC following a single acidification step of sample pretreatment

Intoxication by paraquat, an agricultral chemical, is frequently reported in Asian and eastern European countries because of its availablity by general population. Because paraquat is not significantly biotransformed in man, it requires an intensive monitoring of paraquat level during both stages of rescue and recuperation. It is critical to design an effective technique to eliminate the paraquat from the patient at the earlier stage of the therapy, and a rapid method is required for monitoring the paraquat concentration. Diquat is a less toxic analog of paraquat, and is often mixed with paraquat for agricultural usage. Recently, a high rate of fatal cases were reported on the mixture of diquat and paraquat among all paraquat incidences. In this study, a rapid HPLC method has been developed for monitoring paraquat and diquat in serum and urine samples.