Validation of direct injection electrospray LC-MS/MS for confirmation of opiates in urine drug testing.
A method based on the direct injection of diluted urine for the identification and quantification of morphine, morphine-3-glucuronide, morphine-6-glucuronide, codeine, codeine-6-glucuronide, ethylmorphine, ethylmorphine-6-glucuronide and 6-acetylmorphine (6AM) in human urine by electrospray ionisation liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was validated for use as a confirmation procedure in urine drug testing. Four deuterium labelled analogues were used as internal standards: morphine-3-glucuronide-D3, morphine-D3, codeine-D3 and 6AM-D3. Twenty microlitre aliquots of urine were mixed with 80 mul of the internal standard solution in autosampler vials and 10 mul was injected. The chromatographic system consisted of a 2.0 x 100 mm C18 column and the gradient elution buffers used acetonitrile and 25 mmol/l formic acid. Two product ions produced from the protonated molecular ions were monitored in the selected reaction monitoring mode. The intra- and inter-assay variability (coefficient of variation) was below 10% at higher levels for all analytes, but at the reporting limits the variation was above 20% for 6AM, morphine-3-glucuronide and codeine-6-glucuronide. Ion suppression occurred early after injection but did not affect the identification and quantification of the analytes in authentic samples. The method was further validated by comparison with a reference gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric method using authentic urine samples. The two methods agreed almost completely (99%) regarding the identified analytes, but for the quantitative results there were slightly lower levels when measuring glucuronides directly as compared to total determination after hydrolysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. We conclude that the presented liquid chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric method is robust and reliable, and suitable for use as a confirmation method in urine drug testing for opiates
Gustavsson
E
E
Department of Medicine, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-17176 Stockholm, Sweden.
Andersson
M
M
Stephanson
N
N
Beck
O
O
D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000652:urine*; D002138:Calibration; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D006801:Humans; D007120:Immunochemistry; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods*
D000701:Analgesics, Opioid