Abstract
When human health is affected by food terrorism or other incidents involving cyanide-containing foods, public institutions are required to test human biological samples. However, conventional gas chromatograph (GC)-based analytical methods are not suitable for public testing due to the complex pretreatment process and the recent shortage of helium gas. In this study, we developed an analytical method for cyanide and thiocyanate ions in human blood using post-column HPLC with fluorescence detection and evaluated the method using human blood. The recovery test for cyanide ion in human blood showed an accuracy of 88.4%, a repeatability of 1.8%, and an intra-laboratory precision of 7.0%. The recovery test for thiocyanate ion in the same human blood showed an accuracy of 95.5%, a repeatability of 5.9%, and an intra-laboratory precision of 11.5%. The study suggests that this analytical method is useful for measuring cyanide and thiocyanate ions in blood when health damage occurs during food terrorism or other intentional contamination incidents.
