ELI5: How to read LC/MS quantitation reports
I'm hoping this is the correct place to post this question.
Over at r/DNMAvengers we send samples of drugs to Energy Control in order to get accurate breakdowns of all the adulterants and synthesis byproducts found in our pills, powders and tabs. Energy Control is based in Spain and is an NGO working for harm reduction in recreational drug users. Their website: http://energycontrol.org/
Once you send them a sample they analyze it and send you back the results of the GC/MS and LC/MS analyses. My question is regarding the LC sheets. Here are two examples:
The regression line they calculate is chopped at the 4th decimal point. When I did the same calculation (linear fit + apply to the area results of the samples) without chopping, my results were >10% off from theirs. It also appears that the device itself fluctuates significantly even with the same sample, adding another inaccuracy to the entire process.
Here the calibration samples they used are in % rather than mg. Also the result from this analysis (10477177 - below) is higher than any of their calibration results, making the sample >100% ? However they write 93% and I couldn't figure out where that came from.
Thanks to u/KamajiTheBoiler for spotting this inaccuracy.
Are they doing incorrect math? Is the attempt to quantitate using this device futile given the huge inaccuracies evident in their calibration?
Thank you!
Posted Jul 6, 2015, 1:23 AM UTC · edited