Relationship Between Oral Fluid and Blood Concentrations of Drugs of Abuse in Drivers Suspected of Driving Under the Influence of Drugs

Abstract

In recent years, the interest in the use of oral fluid as biological matrix has increased significantly, particularly for detecting driving under the influence of drugs (DUID). In this study, the relationship between the oral fluid and blood concentrations of drugs of abuse in drivers suspected of DUID is Nevertheless the data reflect the variability of the OF/B ratios in drivers under the influence of drugs.The wide range of the ratios, however, does not allow reliable calculation of the blood concentrations from oral fluid concentrations.

Can the prevalence of high blood drug concentrations in a population be estimated by analysing oral fluid? A study of tetrahydrocannabinol and amphetamine

“…The Rosita-2 Project [9,16] included drivers who were apprehended by police in several countries suspected for driving under the influence of drugs. Samples of oral fluid were collected by using the Intercept Oral Specimen Collection Device (OraSure Technologies, Bethlehem PA, USA), and whole blood samples were also obtained.…”

“…Significant inter-and intra-subject variability in oral fluid/whole blood (OF/B) ratios has been observed [8][9], and the wide range of OF/B ratios does not allow reliable calculation of the drug concentrations in blood from drug concentrations in oral fluid. There are, however, positive correlations between drug concentrations in oral fluid and blood, varying from one drug to another [9][10][11][12]. For alcohol, the concentration in oral fluid reflects very well the blood alcohol concentration [1,4].…”

“…A correlation between drug concentrations in oral fluid and blood was found for amphetamine, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and other drugs in the Rosita-2 study [9,16]. We examined the distribution of concentrations of amphetamine and THC from that study using the EasyFit software (www.mathwave.com) and found that two two-parameter probability distributions fitted the distributions of concentrations of both drugs in both blood and oral fluid well: the Weibull and Lognormal distributions.…”

“…Concentration data for THC and amphetamine observed in the Rosita-2 Project [9,16] were used to compare the estimation procedures. To our knowledge, Rosita-2 is the only survey where a sufficiently large number of drug concentration data for blood and oral fluid is available.…”

External quality assessment of multi-analyte chromatographic methods in oral fluid

“…In the past, similar programs have been organized: UKNEQAS (United Kingdom National External Quality Assessment Scheme) was the first to publish interlaboratory results [5], followed by ORALVEQ [6,7] and the ROSITA-2 project. [8] None of these existing programs could however be used for the DRUID project since tests had to be adapted to the DRUID core list of analytes and cut-offs. Laboratories were instructed to add 1 mL of the neat oral fluid sample to a StatSure collection device.…”