title: Use of high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection after a primary drug screening in patients admitted to the emergency department.
abstract: Two hundred fifty samples of patients admitted to the Emergency Department at the Hospital Municipal de Urgencias, Córdoba, Argentina for a drug screening by HPTLC, FPIA, spectrophotometric methods, and HPLC/DAD were randomly selected. The rate of positive screens was 34.0% with the following rate distribution: 12.0% alcohol, 13.6% nonsteroid antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), 2.0% anticonvulsants, 0.8% barbiturates, 0.4% narcotics, 0.4% antidepressants, 2.8% cocaine, and 2.0% cannabinoids. Psychoactive drugs (alcohol, cocaine, and cannabinoids) were detected in 43.9% of the patients admitted for traffic accidents, namely 35.71% alcohol, 2.38% alcohol-cocaine, 2.38% alcohol-cannabinoids, 2.38% cocaine-cannabinoids, and 2.38% alcohol-cocaine-cannabinoids. These results help identify the trend of use and/or abuse of drugs and its relationship with different causes of admission (accidents, overdose, and other pathologies), age, and gender.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacología, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Ciudad Universitaria, Argentina.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gioino
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pacchioni
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rocca
authors.forename: S Molina
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Barrios
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brocca
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Cancela
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet / Q000379:methods; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*