Method and apparatus for chromatography mass spectrometry

A chromatography-mass spectrometry method comprising the steps of:

• preparing, on the basis of data representing the relationship between retention times and mass spectra obtained as a result of chromatography mass spectrometry of a first sample, a first chromatogram formed of a mass chromatogram of components to be observed or a base peak ion chromatogram in which the maximums of the ion intensity in the mass spectra are plotted with respect to the retention times;
• preparing, on the basis of second data representing the relationship between retention times and mass spectra obtained as a result of chromatography mass spectrometry of a second sample, a second chromatogram formed of a mass chromatogram of the components to be observed or a base peak ion chromatogram in which the maximums of the ion intensity in the mass spectra are plotted with respect to the retention times;
• establishing correspondences between peaks of the first chromatogram and peaks of the second chromatogram by comparing the mass spectra of the peaks of the first chromatogram and the mass spectra of the peaks of the second chromatogram;
• and
• correcting the retention times of the mass spectra of the second sample so that the retention times of the peaks of the first and second chromatograms, between which correspondences are established in the preceding step, are equal to each other.

A chromatography-mass spectrometry apparatus comprising:

• a data processing section in which data indicating the relationship between retention times and mass spectra of an input first sample and data indicating the relationship between retention times and mass spectra of an input second sample are compared to correct the retention times of the data derived from the second sample, and
• a display section,
• wherein the data processing section prepares, from the data indicating the relationship between the retention times and the mass spectra, a chromatogram formed of a mass chromatogram of components to be observed or a base peak ion chromatogram in which the maximums of the ion intensity in the mass spectra are plotted with respect to the retention time, establishes correspondences between peaks of the chromatogram derived from the first sample and peaks of the chromatogram derived from the second sample by comparing mass spectra of the peaks of the chromatogram derived from the first sample and mass spectra of the peaks of the chromatogram derived from the second sample, and corrects the retention times of the mass spectra of the second sample so that the retention times of the peaks of the chromatogram derived from the first sample and the retention times of the peaks of the chromatogram derived from the second sample, between which correspondences are established, are equal to each other, and
• wherein the display section displays, on a map, data derived from the first sample and data derived from the second sample by indicating the retention times on a common coordinate axis, and by indicating the ion intensity by colors or shades with respect to the coordinate axes representing the retention time and the mass-to-charge ratio, displays side by side the chromatogram derived from the first sample and the chromatogram derived from the second sample by connecting the corresponding peaks by line segments.