The establishment of a highly sensitive method in detecting ketamine and norketamine simultaneously in human hairs by HPLC-Chip–MS/MS

Cut-off proposal for the detection of ketamine in hair

“…Ten hair specimens from drug abusers were analyzed [11]. The resulting concentrations were relatively high, if compared to other studies.…”

“…The analytical techniques most frequently used to detect ketamine and norketamine in hair were GC-MS [2,3,5,13,22,23] and LC-MS/MS (or LC-HRMS) [4,7]. In one case, a specific method using HPLC-Chip-MS/MS [11] was developed. A summary of the reviewed methods is presented in Table 2.…”

“…The majority of ketamine abusers are likely teens and young working adults [5]. Since the misuse of this drug has been reported in many countries worldwide, its determination in hair samples is offered as a specialist test by hundreds of laboratories, using different analytical techniques [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Hair analysis currently represents a reliable and well-established means of clinical and forensic investigation, insomuch as it is regularly requested to evaluate drug exposure, to portray drug abuse history and/or withdrawal control, to perform workplace drug testing, driving re-licensing and post-mortem investigations, to ascertain drug-facilitated crimes, and occasional or prenatal exposure to drugs [14,15].…”

Determination of ketamine and its major metabolite, norketamine, in urine and plasma samples using microextraction by packed sorbent and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

“…Ketamine (K), one of the most widely used club drugs and a parenterally administered anesthetic agent, possesses sedative, amnesic and analgesic properties at sub-anesthetic doses [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Due to the rapid onset of effects and short duration of action, it has been used primarily as a veterinary anesthetic and in short-term surgical procedures in humans [2,6,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Ketamine is metabolized in the liver by microsomal cytochrome P450 system, yielding at least two compounds of pharmacological interest: norketamine (NK) and dehydronorketamine (DHNK).…”

Detection of New Psychoactive Substances

“…In pharmaceutical preparations, ketamine is normally found as an injectable solution, but it can also be produced as a powder or tablet. In one case, a specific method using HPLC-Chip-MS/MS [36] was developed. Since the misuse of this drug has been reported in many countries worldwide, its determination in hair samples is offered as a specialist test by hundreds of laboratories, using different analytical techniques [15À33].…”