Dias, Mário JoãoGallardo Alba, Maria EugéniaRaposo, Raquel Helena Carvalho Silva2014-07-232014-07-232009http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/2077Following the intensification of agriculture and the promotion of agro-chemicals in low and middle income countries, acute pesticide poisoning has become a major public health problem with more than 300,000 deaths each year around the world. The easy availability of highly toxic pesticides in the homes of farming communities has made pesticides a preferred choice for suicide with an extremely high case fatality. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that there may be 1 million serious unintentional poisonings each year and in addition 2 million people hospitalized for suicide attempts with pesticides. The goal of this work was the detection and quantification of eight organophosphorous pesticides in blood samples using solid phase extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The studied analytes were omethoate, dimethoate, diazinon, chlorpyrifos, parathion, clorfenvinphos, quinalphos and azinphos. Ethion was used as internal standard (IS). The analytes and IS were extracted by solid-phase extraction using Oasis® HLB extraction cartridges, and the extracts were analyzed by gas chromatography-electron ionisation-mass spectrometry (GC/EI-MS). Calibration curves were established using a weighed linear calibration model (except for omethoate, for which a power regression was used) between 0.05 and 25.00 μg/mL. The correlation coefficients were higher than 0.991. Precision (intraday and intermediate) and accuracy were in conformity with the criteria normally accepted in bioanalytical method validation. Limits of quantification were 50 ng/mL for all compounds, except for ometoathe, for which 100 ng/mL were obtained. Because of its simplicity and speed, the proposed method can be applied in the determination of these compounds in post-mortem blood samples, and is suitable for application in toxicology routine analysis.engPesticidas organofosforadosAnalitosCromatografia gasosamaster thesis