The Current Status of Sweat Testing For Drugs of Abuse: A Review

Abstract

Sweat is an alternative biological matrix useful to detect drugs of abuse intake. It is produced by eccrine and apocrine glands originating in the skin dermis and terminating in secretory canals that flow into the skin surface and hair follicles. Since many years it has been demonstrated that endogenous and exogenous chemicals are secreted in this biological sample hence its collection and analysis could show the past intake of xenobiotics. From the seventies the excretion of drugs of abuse has been investigated in human skin excretion; later in nineties forensic scientists began to experiment some techniques to trap sweat for analyses. Even if the use of skin excretions for drug testing has been restricted mainly by difficulties in sample recovery, the marketing of systems for the sample collection has allowed successful sweat testing for several drugs of abuse. In the recent years sweat testing developed a noninvasive monitoring of drug exposure in various contexts as criminal justice, employment and outpatient clinical settings. This paper provides an overview of literature data about sweat drug testing procedures for various xenobiotics especially cocaine metabolites, opiates, cannabis and amphetamines. Issues related to collection, analysis and interpretation of skin excretions as well as its advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Moreover the chance to apply the technique to some particular situation such as workplace drug testing, drivers, doping or prenatal diagnosis, the comparison between sweat and other non conventional matrices are also reviewed. According to literature data the analysis of sweat may be usefully alternative for verifying drug history and for monitoring compliance.

The microfluidics of the eccrine sweat gland, including biomarker partitioning, transport, and biosensing implications

“…The concept of using sweat for non-invasive access to biomarkers and solutes in blood is far from new, with large volumes of clinical work showing promising results as far back as the 1940s and 1950s. However, outside of cystic fibrosis (CF) diagnostics for increased sweat chloride levels 1,2 and testing for the metabolites of illicit drugs, 3,4 sweat remains relegated mainly to the lab and clinic. Both the significant opportunities and frustrations with sweat as a diagnostic tool are succinctly summarized by Bravo and Castro: 5 clinical sample are the difficulty to produce enough sweat for analysis, sample evaporation, lack of appropriate sampling devices, need for a trained staff… normalization of the sampled volume.…”

Techniques and Technologies for The Bioanalysis of Sativex ® , Metabolites and Related Compounds

“…Sweat patches that are placed on the body for hours or even days collect excreted sweat that can be analyzed for the presence of drugs [88]. This is most suited to patient care and monitoring purposes, due to the timeframe required for sample collection.…”

Rapid detection of cocaine, benzoylecgonine and methylecgonine in fingerprints using surface mass spectrometry

“…Recently there has been a push towards workplace drug testing as well as new initiatives to test motorists for drug driving [1]. Recently there has been a push towards workplace drug testing as well as new initiatives to test motorists for drug driving [1].…”