Dietary fatty acids can be both beneficial and detrimental to human health depending on the degree and type of saturation. Healthcare providers and research scientists monitor the fatty acid content of human plasma and serum as an indicator of health status and diet. In addition, both the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health – Office of Dietary Supplements are interested in circulating fatty acids (FAs) because they may be predictive of coronary heart disease. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides a wide variety of reference materials (RMs) and Standard Reference Materials® (SRM®s) including blood, serum, plasma, and urine with values assigned for analytes of clinical interest. NIST SRM 2378 Fatty Acids in Frozen Human Serum was introduced in 2015 to help validate methods used for the analysis of FAs in serum, and consists of three different pools of serum acquired from (1) healthy donors who had taken fish oil dietary supplements (at least 1000 mg per day) for at least one month (level 1 material), (2) healthy donors who had taken flaxseed oil dietary supplements (at least 1000 mg per day) for at least one month (level 2 material), and (3) healthy donors eating “normal” diets who had not taken dietary supplements containing fish or plant oils (level 3 material). The use of dietary supplements by donors provided SRMs with natural endogenous ranges of FAs at concentrations observed in human populations. Results from analyses using two methods at NIST, including one involving a novel microwave-assisted acid hydrolysis procedure, and one at the CDC are presented here. These results and their respective uncertainties were combined to yield certified values with expanded uncertainties for 12 FAs and reference values with expanded uncertainties for an additional 18 FAs.

膳食脂肪酸可能对人体健康有益也有害，这取决于饱和度和饱和度类型。医疗保健提供者和研究科学家监测人体血浆和血清中的脂肪酸含量，以作为健康状况和饮食的指标。此外，疾病预防控制中心（CDC）和美国国立卫生研究院-膳食补充剂办公室都对循环脂肪酸（FAs）感兴趣，因为它们可以预测冠心病。美国国家标准技术研究院（NIST）提供了多种参考物质（RM）和标准参考物质®（SRM®），包括血液，血清，血浆和尿液，并为其指定了具有临床意义的分析物。NIST SRM 2378冷冻人血清中的脂肪酸于2015年推出，以帮助验证用于分析血清中FA的方法，并包括从（1）服用鱼油膳食补充剂的健康供体（在每天至少1000毫克）（至少1个月）（1级物质）；（2）服用亚麻籽油膳食补充剂（每天至少1000毫克）至少1个月（2级物质）的健康捐献者；以及（ 3）吃“正常”饮食的健康捐献者未服用含鱼或植物油的膳食补充剂（3级物质）。捐助者使用膳食补充剂为SRM提供了在人类人群中观察到的浓度的天然内源性FA。NIST使用两种方法进行分析的结果：本文介绍了一种方法，其中一种方法涉及一种新型的微波辅助酸水解程序，另一种方法在CDC中进行了介绍。将这些结果及其各自的不确定性相结合，可得出12个FA的不确定度扩大的认证值，以及另外18个FA的不确定度扩大的参考值。