Interest of Single Hair Analysis to Document Drug Exposure: Literature Review and a Case Report Involving Zuclopenthixol

Abstract

The analysis of hair to detect drugs and drugs of abuse is performed in various contexts, including child protection cases, abstinence control programs, and workplace drug testing. This alternative matrix offers several advantages, such as a large detection window (months) and non-invasive collection. Segmental analysis of multiple hair strands for drugs and metabolites has been widely reported in the literature over the past three decades, whereas a review of the literature showed that there are only 26 articles that report the analysis of a single hair. They focus on two approaches: mass spectrometry imaging techniques, which improve the resolution of dating an intoxication or conventional methods, such as gas chromatography mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Improved sensitivity of LC-MS/MS techniques allows the evaluation of drug content in segments of a single hair. However, the units used to express the results vary, and depend on the authors. Following a review of the literature, we present a case that illustrates drug analyses both in a strand of hair and a single hair. In this case of exposure of a child to zuclopenthixol (ZPT), the analysis of ZPT in a single segmented hair by LC-MS/MS strengthened the presumption of a single administration.

Fatality involving ocfentanil documented by identification of metabolites

“…The LC–MS/MS analyses of OcF were performed using an API 4000 mass spectrometer (ABSciex, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) equipped with an electrospray ESI probe, on a Turbo V® ion source, as previously described . The calibration curve was built with a drug‐free plasma sample spiked with a standard solution, with final concentrations as follows: 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5, 10, and 20 μg/L.…”

Hair testing for doping agents. What is known and what remains to do

“…For example, using GC/MS, cocaine and heroin or methamphetamine and amphetamine were identified in segmented hair. Using LC–MS/MS, other compounds, such as zuclopenthixol, fentanyl, quetiapine or doxylamine and chlorpheniramine were also detected. It seems that the use of a single segmented hair in comparison with a complete lock of hair may be more informative to obtain a retrospective timeline of drug exposure.…”

“…Since a dozen of years, it has been published that drug(s) can be detected in a single hair using highly sensitive conventional LC-MS/MS or LC-HRMS. Alibe et al 51 or clenbuterol. 10,11,42 Under all the above mentionned conditions, the application of hair testing, which is a non-invasive and a non-intrusive matrix, is a viable approach to document the case after an AAF.…”

“…Since a dozen of years, it has been published that drug(s) can be detected in a single hair using highly sensitive conventional LC–MS/MS or LC‐HRMS. Alibe et al have recently reviewed such possibilities. For example, using GC/MS, cocaine and heroin or methamphetamine and amphetamine were identified in segmented hair.…”

Forensic toxicological analysis of hair: a review

“…saliva, sweat and hair. In a number of countries, biological samples other than urine, are being explored intensively for workplace drug testing, providing information about chronic intoxication, awarding a driving license, clinical toxicology, in criminal justice, in the treatment of addicted patients, postmortem toxicology studies, solving drug-facilitated crimes and in child protection cases (Allibe et al 2017;Baumgartner et al 1979;Khajuria and Nayak 2017). For analysis of new psychoactive substances, hair testing is a good complement to urine testing (Kintz 2017a;Montesano et al 2017).…”