Comparing Suspect and Nontargeted Screening Workflows for Perinatal Chemical Exposome Analysis: A European Interlaboratory Study from the PARC-EU Project

However, conventional chemical analyses typically cover only a limited subset of the chemical exposureome. Suspect and nontargeted screening (SS/NTS) using high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) workflows provides a powerful framework for comprehensive assessments of exposure, with the potential to detect a broad range of environmental contaminants and emerging chemicals.

An interlaboratory assay involving 12 laboratories was performed to evaluate the comparability and complementarity of SS/NTS approaches for maternal urine, serum, and milk, based on reversed-phase (RPLC), hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC), and gas chromatography (GC) with HRMS. Participants used in-house methods to possibly detect a predefined and shared list of 50 compounds with varying polarities spiked at three concentrations.