Deploying Validated Mass Spectrometry for Frontline Detection and Treatment of Human Poisoning by Long-Acting Anticoagulant Rodenticides

Abstract

Derived from the same natural anticoagulant as warfarin (dicoumarol), long-acting anticoagulant rodenticides (LAARs) or superwarfarins have much longer half-lives in human blood than warfarin (weeks instead of hours) and are more potent inhibitors of the same enzyme, vitamin K epoxide reductase component 1. While used effectively worldwide as rodenticides, LAARs can elicit severe, protracted, life-threatening coagulopathy in humans at blood concentrations >10 ng/mL leading to numerous accidental and intentional poisonings annually. To facilitate timely identification and quantitative analysis of LAARs in patients presenting unexplained severe, protracted, life-threatening coagulopathy, several analytical methods have been developed, all of which are based on electrospray liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS). In this perspective, we evaluated and compared these LC–MS methods in terms of validation, simultaneous detection of multiple LAARs, measurement of individual stereoisomers, and clinical applications.