Quantitative determination of 43 common drugs and drugs of abuse in human serum by HPLC-MS/MS

Abstract

An analytical procedure for the simultaneous determination in human serum of 43 common drugs of abuse and their metabolites belonging to the different chemical and toxicological classes of amphetamines, benzodiazepines, dibenzazepines, cocaine, lysergic acid diethylamide, opioids, phencyclidine, tricyclic antidepressants, and zolpidem, using 33 deuterated standards, is presented. The sample treatment was developed to be a very simple protein precipitation and filtration. All analyses were performed with a high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry in positive ionization mode. All analytes were calibrated up to 550 μg/L. The limit of detection ranged from 0.6 ng/mL (EDDP) to 13.7 ng/mL (flunitrazepam). The method has been validated according to the guidelines of the Gesellschaft für Toxikologische und Forensische Chemie, using three multiple reaction mode (MRM) transitions and retention time for positive compound identification, instead of two MRMs, in anticipation of the new guidelines for January 2011.

A rapid and accurate UPLC/MS/MS method for the simultaneous determination of zolpidem and its main metabolites in biological fluids and its application in a forensic context

“…Furthermore, greater sensitivity is achieved (0.10 ng/mL) even with low blood and urine sample volumes, making this method well suited for forensic toxicology analyses. Moreover, the LOQ of zolpidem is the same as Villain's result (the LOQ of zolpidem in urine sample is 0.1 ng/mL), and better than Bassan's (the LOQ of zolpidem in plasma sample is 40 ng/mL) and Bjørk's results (the LOQ of zolpidem in blood sample is 10 ng/mL) [17,18]. In addition, the rapid sample analysis Table 3 Accuracy, intra-and inter-assay precision, matrix effect, recovery and process efficiency of the method.…”

“…Many methods and techniques have been developed for the analysis of zolpidem in biological fluids, including gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) [13], highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC) [14,15], capillary electrophoresis (CE) [16] and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) [3,4,17,18]. However, no method especially LC-MS/MS method has been published for the simultaneous determination of zolpidem and its main metabolites to prolong the detection window of zolpidem in blood and urine.…”

Assessing Cocaine Abuse Using LC–MS/MS Measurements in Biological Specimens

“…However, the method presented a significant matrix effect and low recoveries for some of the analyzed compounds. Bassan et al [46] also have determined 'alternative metabolites,' namely methylecgonine and norcocaine in only 0.05 ml of plasma; sample preparation was performed by protein precipitation and limits of detection of about 2 ng/ml were obtained. This method included 43 analytes and a time of analysis of only 15 min including sample preparation and chromatographic analysis, being therefore capable of providing great sample throughput.…”

Evaluating the "Tape Tea" Myth as Low Cost Abuse Drug through Mass Spectrometry

“…As mass spectrometry is considered a consolidated technique for the sort of applications in the literature regarding characterization and detection of drugs, [5][6][7] then inorganic and organic mass spectrometry techniques can generate powerful information regarding a given system. 8 Following this criteria, this work has evaluated the chemical composition of the "tape tea" for extracting important information in its prediction as a potential abuse drug.…”