Gas Chromatographic Applications in Microbiology and Medicine

This text, one of a series of handbooks devoted to Techniques in Pure and Applied Microbiology, is an attempt to present in one volume the fundamentals, basic methodology, and specific applications of gas-liquid chromatography in microbiology and medicine. Perhaps an overly extensive introductory review of the history, theory, development, and basic applications of gas chromatography is presented, but this may be of interest to novices and students. The real utility of the book lies in the discussion of gas chromatography as applied to specific biomedical problems. Mitruka discusses the gas chromatographic analysis of microbial cell constituents, metabolic products of microorganisms, and microbial degradation products of substrates in detail, with specific attention to methodology. The application of these analyses to the identification of microorganisms is included. The detection of viruses, rickettsiae, protozoa, helminths, and fungi are considered in separate chapters. The identification of anaerobic bacteria, traditionally a difficult problem, is discussed by Bricknell, Sutter, and Finegold using gas chromatography. The practical application of gas chromatography to the diagnosis of infectious diseases is discussed by Mitruka with emphasis on characteristic metabolic profiles (fingerprints) of isolates from clinical specimens and cultures. Analytical flow charts, profiles of specific microorganisms, and sample chromatograms are presented. The diagnosis of a variety of metabolic disorders and inborn errors of metabolism by gas chromatography of the specifically involved chemical marker is considered separately. Peter Jatlow discusses the application of gas chromatography to drug analysis in a well documented and up-to-date chapter, and Mitruka offers applications of this tool to routine clinical chemistry determinations as well as to arialysis of chemical carcinogens and nucleic acid analogs. This book should be of value to those desiring to apply gas-liquid chromatography to a variety of specific biomedical problems. The transition of the gas chromatograph from the basic research laboratory to the clinical and diagnostic milieu is well established by this text.