title: Rapid screening of drugs of abuse and their metabolites by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry: application to urinalysis.
abstract: This paper describes a rapid gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric (GC/MS) screening method for the detection of drugs of abuse and/or their metabolites in urine. Synthetic stimulants, opiates, cocaine metabolites, cannabinoids--and specifically the acid metabolite of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH)--can be simultaneously extracted by a single liquid/liquid separation step, at alkaline pH, and assayed as trimethylsilyl derivatives by GC/MS in SIM (selected ion monitoring) mode. All the analytes show a good linearity (R2 > 0.99 for most of the considered substances) in the range 25-1000 ng/mL, with a good reproducibility of both the retention times (CV% <0.7) and the relative abundances of the characteristic diagnostic ions (CV% <13). The limit of detection (LOD) of the method is 25 ng/mL of target compound in human urine for most of the substances investigated, 3 ng/mL for THC-COOH, and 10 ng/mL for norbuprenorphine. Validation of the method allows its application to different fields of forensic analytical toxicology, including antidoping analysis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio Antidoping, Federazione Medico Sportiva Italiana, Largo Giulio Onesti 1, 00197 Rome RM, Italy.
authors.forename: Sabina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Strano-Rossi
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Molaioni
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Botrè
mesh_terms: D002138:Calibration; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000652:urine*; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods*; D016482:Urinalysis / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs