title: Determination of atropine in biological fluids by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography in the presence of strychnine and tetracaine.
abstract: The identification and quantitation of atropine, in whole blood and gastric contents in the presence of strychnine and tetracaine is described. This method uses liquid-liquid extraction and micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MECC). Separations are made using a 50 cm long capillary and a borate/phosphate buffer at pH 9.2 with 50 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Linearity was established for the three compounds between 1.0 and 100 microg/mL, using scopolamine as internal standard. The limit of detection for atropine was estimated at 0.06 microg/mL and the limit of quantitation at 0.2 microg/mL. The run time is less than 30 min. Alternate parameters are proposed to reduce the run time to under 10 min. The method was applied to a forensic post-mortem case.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland. olivier.plaut@medecine.unige.ch
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Plaut
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Staub
mesh_terms: D000779:Anesthetics, Local / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D001285:Atropine / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D020374:Chromatography, Micellar Electrokinetic Capillary; D003292:Convulsants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D005766:Gastrointestinal Contents / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D009184:Mydriatics / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D013331:Strychnine / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D013748:Tetracaine / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D003292:Convulsants; D009184:Mydriatics; D013748:Tetracaine; D001285:Atropine; D013331:Strychnine