Comparison of Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Methods to Measure Salivary Cotinine Levels in Ill Children

E. Melinda Mahabee-Gittens, Matthew J. Mazzella, John T. Doucette, Ashley L. Merianos, Lara Stone, Chase A. Wullenweber, Stefanie A. Busgang and Georg E. Matt
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E. Melinda Mahabee-Gittens: Division of Emergency Medicine, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
Matthew J. Mazzella: Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
John T. Doucette: Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
Ashley L. Merianos: School of Human Services, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA
Lara Stone: Division of Emergency Medicine, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
Chase A. Wullenweber: Division of Emergency Medicine, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
Stefanie A. Busgang: Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
Georg E. Matt: Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92123, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-12

Abstract: Objective : Cotinine is the preferred biomarker to validate levels of tobacco smoke exposure (TSE) in children. Compared to enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay methods (ELISA) for quantifying cotinine in saliva, the use of liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has higher sensitivity and specificity to measure very low levels of TSE. We sought to compare LC-MS/MS and ELISA measures of cotinine in saliva samples from children overall and the associations of these measures with demographics and TSE patterns. Method : Participants were nonsmoking children (N = 218; age mean (SD) = 6.1 (5.1) years) presenting to a pediatric emergency department. Saliva samples were analyzed for cotinine using both LC-MS/MS and ELISA. Limit of quantitation (LOQ) for LC-MS/MS and ELISA was 0.1 ng/mL and 0.15 ng/mL, respectively. Results : Intraclass correlations (ICC) across methods = 0.884 and was consistent in sex and age subgroups. The geometric mean (GeoM) of LC-MS/MS = 4.1 (range: < LOQ to 382 ng/mL; 3% < LOQ) which was lower ( p < 0.0001) than the ELISA GeoM = 5.7 (range: < LOQ to 364 ng/mL; 5% < LOQ). Similar associations of cotinine concentrations with age ( β ^ < −0.10, p < 0.0001), demographic characteristics (e.g., income), and number of cigarettes smoked by caregiver ( β ^ > 0.07, p < 0.0001) were found regardless of cotinine detection method; however, cotinine associations with sex and race/ethnicity were only found to be significant in models using LC-MS/MS-derived cotinine. Conclusions : Utilizing LC-MS/MS-based cotinine, associations of cotinine with sex and race/ethnicity of child were revealed that were not detectable using ELISA-based cotinine, demonstrating the benefits of utilizing the more sensitive LC-MS/MS assay for cotinine measurement when detecting low levels of TSE in children.

Keywords: cotinine; ELISA; liquid chromatography; secondhand smoke exposure and children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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