TY - JOUR A1 - Becker, Roland T1 - Non-invasive cancer detection using volatile biomarkers: Is urine superior to breath? N2 - In recent years numerous reports have highlighted the options of chemical breath analysis with regard to noninvasive cancer detection. Certain volatile organic compounds (VOC) supposedly present in higher amounts or in characteristic patterns have been suggested as potential biomarkers. However, so far no clinical application based on a specific set of compounds appears to exist. Numerous reports on the capability of sniffer dogs and sensor arrays or electronic noses to distinguish breath of cancer patients and healthy controls supports the concept of genuine cancer-related volatile profiles. However, the actual compounds responsible for the scent are completely unknown and there is no correlation with the potential biomarkers suggested on basis of chemical trace analysis. It is outlined that specific features connected with the VOC analysis in breath – namely small concentrations of volatiles, interfering background concentrations, considerable sampling effort and sample instability, impracticability regarding routine application - stand in the way of substantial progress. The underlying chemicalanalytical challenge can only be met considering the severe susceptibility of VOC determination to these adverse conditions. Therefore, the attention is drawn to the needs for appropriate quality assurance/quality control as the most important feature for the reliable quantification of volatiles present in trace concentration. Consequently, the advantages of urine as an alternative matrix for volatile biomarker search in the context of diagnosing lung and other cancers are outlined with specific focus on quality assurance and practicability in clinical chemistry. The headspace over urine samples as the VOC source allows adapting gas chromatographical procedures well-established in water analysis. Foremost, the selection of urine over breath as non-invasive matrix should provide considerably more resilience to adverse effects during sampling and analysis. The most important advantage of urine over breath is seen in the option to partition, dispense, mix, spike, store, and thus to dispatch taylor-made urine samples on demand for quality control measures. Although it is still open at this point if cancer diagnosis supported by non-invasively sampled VOC profiles will ultimately reach clinical application the advantages of urine over breath should significantly facilitate urgently required steps beyond the current proof-of-concept stage and towards standardisation. KW - VOC KW - Breath KW - Urine KW - Lung cancer KW - Volatile organic compounds PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2020.110060 VL - 143 SP - 110060 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-51066 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ogrinc, N. A1 - Rossi, A. M. A1 - Durbiano, F. A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Milavec, M. A1 - Bogozalec Kosir, A. A1 - Kakoulides, E. A1 - Ozer, H. A1 - Akcadag, F. A1 - Goenaga-Infante, H. A1 - Quaglia, M. A1 - Mallia, S. A1 - Umbricht, G. A1 - O'Connor, G. A1 - Guettler, B. T1 - Support for a European metrology network on food safety Food-MetNet N2 - This paper describes Food-MetNet, a coordinated preparatory initiative to establish the European Metrology Network on Food Safety (EMN-FS). Food-MetNet aims to establish a long-term ongoing dialogue between the metrology community and relevant stakeholders, in particular, European Union Reference Laboratories (EURLs), National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC). This dialogue is meant to support the collection of needs from stakeholders, the take-up of metrological research output and the development of the roadmaps needed to navigate future research. KW - Network KW - Metrology KW - Food KW - Safety KW - Stakeholders PY - 2021 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.measen.2021.100285 VL - 18 SP - 1 EP - 4 PB - Elsevier AN - OPUS4-53740 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Heyn, L. A1 - Jung, Christian T1 - Indoor exposure to airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: A comparison of stir bar sorptive extraction and pump sampling N2 - Stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) was compared with standardized pump sampling regarding the prospects to assess airborne levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in indoor environments. A historic railway water tower, which will be preserved as a technical monument for museum purposes, was sampled with both approaches because the built-in insulationmaterial was suspected to release PAHs to the indoor air. The 16 PAHs on the US EPA list were quantified using gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection in filters from pump sampling after solvent extraction and on SBSE devices after thermal desorption. SBSEwas seen to sample detectable PAHmasseswith excellent repeatability and a congener pattern largely similar to that observed with pump sampling. Congener patterns were however significantly different from that in the PAH source because release from the insulation material is largely triggered by the respective congener vapor pressures. Absolute masses in the ng range sampled by SBSE corresponded to airborne concentrations in the ng L−1 range determined by pump sampling. Principle differences between SBSE and pump sampling as well as prospects of SBSE as cost-effective and versatile complement of pump sampling are discussed. KW - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons KW - Adsorption KW - Extraction KW - Indoor air PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-537427 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/eng2.12419 VL - 3 IS - 12 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - John Wiley & Sons Ltd. AN - OPUS4-53742 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Groschke, Matthias A1 - Becker, Roland T1 - Comparison of carrier gases for the separation and quantification of mineral oil hydrocarbon (MOH) fractions using online coupled high performance liquid chromatography-gas chromatography-flame ionisation detection N2 - On-line coupled high performance liquid chromatography-gas chromatography-flame ionisation detection (HPLC-GC-FID) was used to compare the effect of hydrogen, helium and nitrogen as carrier gases on the chromatographic characteristics for the quantification of mineral oil hydrocarbon (MOH) traces in food related matrices. After optimisation of chromatographic parameters nitrogen carrier gas exhibited characteristics equivalent to hydrogen and helium regarding requirements set by current guidelines and standardisation such as linear range, quantification limit and carry over. Though nitrogen expectedly led to greater peak widths, all required separations of standard compounds were sufficient and humps of saturated mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOSH) and aromatic mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOAH) were appropriate to enable quantitation similar to situations where hydrogen or helium had been used. Slightly increased peak widths of individual hump components did not affect shapes and widths of the MOSH and MOAH humps were not significantly affected by the use of nitrogen as carrier gas. Notably, nitrogen carrier gas led to less solvent peak tailing and smaller baseline offset. Overall, nitrogen may be regarded as viable alternative to hydrogen or helium and may even extend the range of quantifiable compounds to highly volatile hydrocarbon eluting directly after the solvent peak. KW - Mineral oil hydrocarobons KW - Food KW - Liquid chromatography KW - Gas chromatography KW - MOSH/MOAH PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-601450 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2024.464946 SN - 0021-9673 VL - 1726 SP - 1 EP - 7 PB - Elsevier CY - New York, NY AN - OPUS4-60145 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dorgerloh, Ute A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Freeling, Finnian A1 - Scheurer, Marco A1 - Gökçe, Emine A1 - Strack, Katrin A1 - Sommerfeld, Thomas A1 - Sauer, Andreas A1 - Schneider, Jonas A1 - Härtel, Christoph A1 - Valkov, Vassil A1 - Moser, Lukas A1 - Geiß, Sabine A1 - Junginger, Sabine A1 - Schlittenbauer, Linda A1 - Suess, Elke A1 - Ruth, Katinka T1 - Standardising the quantification of trifluoroacetic acid in water: Interlaboratory validation trial using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometric detection (LC–MS/MS) N2 - The concentration of trifluoroacetic acid in surface and groundwaters and drinking water is subject of increasing concern. Since there is no standardised procedure available, German standardisation body DIN has initiated the first draft standard using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) after direct injection for the concentration range between ≥ 0.1 and 3 µg/L. Herein, the interlaboratory comparison as final validation step involving 12 expert laboratories from Germany and Switzerland is described. Two groundwaters, two surface waters, a drinking water, a rainwater, and two fortified groundwater samples displayed relative repeatability standard deviations between 3 and 7% and relative reproducibility standard deviation between 6 and 20% and were included in the draft standard DIN 38407-53. KW - TFA Trifluoroacetic acid KW - LC/MS-MS KW - Validation trial PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-632376 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-025-01640-2 SN - 0949-1775 SP - 1 EP - 4 PB - Springer CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-63237 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Scholz, Philipp A1 - Jung, Christian A1 - Weidner, Steffen T1 - Thermo-Desorption Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry for investigating the thermal degradation of polyurethanes N2 - Thermo-Desorption Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) was used to investigate the thermal degradation of two different polyurethanes (PU). PU samples were heated at different heating rates and the desorbed products were collected in a cold injection system and thereafter submitted to GC-MS. Prospects and limitations of the detection and quantification of semi-volatile degradation products were investigated. A temperature dependent PU depolymerization was found at temperatures above 200 °C proved by an increasing release of 1,4-butanediol and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) representing the main building blocks of both polymers. Their release was monitored quantitatively based on external calibration with authentic compounds. Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC) of the residues obtained after thermodesorption confirmed the initial competitive degradation mechanism indicating an equilibrium of crosslinking and depolymerization as previously suggested. Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry of SEC fractions of thermally degraded PUs provided additional hints on degradation mechanism. KW - Thermo-desorption KW - Mass spectrometry KW - Polyurethanes KW - Thermal degradation PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/D3AY00173C SN - 1759-9660 SP - 1 EP - 6 PB - Royal Society for Chemistry AN - OPUS4-57307 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -