title: Application of solid-phase micro-extraction technology to drug screening and identification.
abstract: Benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants and local anaesthetics are frequently involved in poisoning episodes and fatalities. A specific, sensitive and rapid procedure for identifying and quantifying such drugs in postmortem matrices has been developed using solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Very clean extracts were obtained in one step using SPME. The most commonly used fibre coatings were tested to select the best coating for SPME of the drugs. The appropriate fibre coating for most drugs was polyacrylate, followed by Carbowax-divinylbenzene. A Hewlett-Packard 5890 gas chromatograph in combination with a Trio 2000 mass spectrometer was used to analyse the samples. Temperature, time, pH and addition of sodium chLoride were optimized to obtain consistent extraction. The between-day and within-day coefficients of variation were less than 16% and less than 6%, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Biochemistry Department, Manchester Royal Infirmary, University of Manchester, UK. mopbgmm3@fs2.scg.man.ac.uk
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Mosaddegh
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Stoddart
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McClure
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D001344:Autopsy / Q000379:methods; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis / Q000379:methods; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D005554:Forensic Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D016014:Linear Models; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine; D011042:Poisons / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods; D013696:Temperature; D016482:Urinalysis / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D011042:Poisons; D012965:Sodium Chloride