Analysis of fatty acids in sputum from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry preceded by solid-phase microextraction and post-derivatization on the fiber

A method based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and post-derivatization on the fiber coupled to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) was developed for the analysis of fatty acids in sputum from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. The sputum specimens were digested, hydrolyzed, extracted, derivertized, injected and analyzed without cultivation or isolation of the microorganism. Under optimized conditions, the relative standard deviations (RSD, n = 5) for all analytes were below 17% and the limits of detection varied from 1.68 (C24:0) to 150.4 μg L−1 (C12:0). Good linearity was observed for all the fatty acids studied except for C12:0 within a wide concentration range of three orders of magnitudes with the correlation coefficients ranging from 0.91 (C24:0) to 0.99 (C14:0). Fatty acids in sputum specimens from 21 persons were directly analyzed using the proposed method. The results show that in all the sputum specimens from patients, who were clinically diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB), tuberculosis stearic acid (TBSA) was detected, while in all the sputum samples from persons without TB, TBSA was not found. The possibility of using the proposed method to detect mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) via the identification of TBSA in sputum was discussed. The comparison with other methods including sputum culture and microscopy of direct smears indicated that the proposed method is fast and sensitive for the analysis of fatty acids in sputum and offers an alternative for the detection of MTB in sputum.