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An infrared spectroscopy method to detect ammonia in gastric juice

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Abstract

Ammonia in gastric juice is considered a potential biomarker for Helicobacter pylori infection and as a factor contributing to gastric mucosal injury. High ammonia concentrations are also found in patients with chronic renal failure, peptic ulcer disease, and chronic gastritis. Rapid and specific methods for ammonia detection are urgently required by the medical community. Here we present a method to detect ammonia directly in gastric juice based on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The ammonia dissolved in biological liquid samples as ammonium ion was released in air as a gas by the shifting of the pH equilibrium of the ammonium/ammonia reaction and was detected in line by a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy system equipped with a gas cell for the quantification. The method developed provided high sensitivity and selectivity in ammonia detection both in pure standard solutions and in a simulated gastric juice matrix over the range of diagnostic concentrations tested. Preliminary analyses were also performed on real gastric juice samples from patients with gastric mucosal injury and with symptoms of H. pylori infection, and the results were in agreement with the clinicopathology information. The whole analysis, performed in less than 10 min, can be directly applied on the sample without extraction procedures and it ensures high specificity of detection because of the ammonia fingerprint absorption bands in the infrared spectrum. This method could be easily used with endoscopy instrumentation to provide information in real time and would enable the endoscopist to improve and integrate gastroscopic examinations.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the SETNanoMetro Seventh Framework Programme project (project number 604577; call identifier FP7-NMP-2013_LARGE-7).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Strada delle Cacce 91, 10135, Turin, Italy

    Andrea M. Giovannozzi, Francesca Pennecchi & Andrea M. Rossi

  2. NISO Biomed S.r.l., Via Ippolito Nievo 25, 10153, Turin, Italy

    Paul Muller, Paolo Balma Tivola & Silvia Roncari

Authors
  1. Andrea M. Giovannozzi
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  2. Francesca Pennecchi
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  3. Paul Muller
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  4. Paolo Balma Tivola
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  5. Silvia Roncari
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  6. Andrea M. Rossi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea M. Giovannozzi.

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Giovannozzi, A.M., Pennecchi, F., Muller, P. et al. An infrared spectroscopy method to detect ammonia in gastric juice. Anal Bioanal Chem 407, 8423–8431 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9030-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9030-6

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