High performance liquid chromatography determination of ethylene glycol and ethylene chlorohydrin in tissues.

A simultaneous determination of ethylene glycol (EG) and ethylene chlorohydrin (EC), which are formed during sterilization of bone and dura mater with ethylene oxide, has been reported. The EG and EC residues in tissues were extracted with HPLC grade water and analyzed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a RefractoMonitor detector. The isocratic elution was employed with HPLC grade water as the solvent. Since the reference chamber of the detector was filled with solvent and was not changed during the run, the use of gradient programming was not employed. With spherisorb ODS (5 microns) C18 column and 20 microL sample injection, the retention times for EG and EC were (104 +/- 2) sec and (202 +/- 4) sec, respectively. The unknown concentration was calculated from the calibration curve and the weight of the sample tissue. The HPLC analysis provided a simple, accurate and reproducible method of determination of EG and EC residues in ethylene-oxide sterilized tissues.