Quantitative Analysis of Alprazolam and Triazolam in Hemolysed Whole Blood and Liver Digest by GC/MS/NICI with Deuterated Internal Standards

Abstract

This report describes sensitive and specific methods for the quantitation of alprazolam and triazolam in hemolysed whole blood and liver tissue. Samples of blood and enzyme-digested liver are extracted without pH adjustment with n-butyl chloride, after addition of deuterated internal standards and urea. The evaporated extracts are reconstituted in acetonitrile for analysis by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry/negative ion chemical ionization (GC/MS/NICI). Fatty extracts may be cleaned up by partitioning between pentane and acetonitrile. Two ion pairs are monitored for each drug. Within-day coefficients of variation in the range 10-50 micrograms/L for blood are approximately 5%. Between-day coefficients of variation are less than 10%. The limit of quantitation (based on analysis of 0.2-mL blood samples) is 0.5 microgram/L for triazolam and 4 micrograms/L for alprazolam.

Detection of triazolam in skeletal remains buried for 4 years

“…Cairns et al [10] reported the sensitive and specific determination of triazolam in hemolyzed whole blood and liver digests by GC/MS with NICI mode. When we applied the above HPLC fraction to GC/MS with NICI mode, the peak of triazolam was clearly evident.…”

Simultaneous determination of triazolam and its metabolites in human plasma by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

“…In order to improve the detection ability of abused drugs like triazolam and study the pharmacokinetics of triazolam to reduce drug-drug interaction, a selective and sensitive analytical method must be developed. There have already been several methods to analyze triazolam and its metabolites in human biological samples, i.e., gas chromatography (GC) [9,10], GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) [11][12][13] and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) [14][15][16][17]. Recently, LC-MS [18][19][20][21][22] and LC-MS/MS [23] analytical methods were also developed.…”

Simple method for determination of triazolam in human plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

“…Several methods have been reported for the determination of triazolam in various matrices using gas chromatography (GC) [3][4][5], GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) [6][7][8][9], high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) [10][11][12][13], and HPLC-MS [14][15][16][17][18][19]. In general, triazolam has been determined by chromatographic methods following liquid-liquid extraction or solid-phase extraction to remove impurities contained in human body fluids.…”