Drug screening of hair by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
Hair has become an important matrix for drug analysis, complementary to blood and urine as a matrix. A prolonged detection window makes hair analysis suitable for the detection of exposure to illegal and medicinal drugs for periods up to 12 months. In the present study, a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) method for drug screening in hair was developed and validated. To 20 mg of hair, 0.45 mL of acetonitrile/25 mM formic acid (5:95 v/v) and 50 microL of deuterated internal standards were added, and the sample was incubated in a water bath at 37 degrees C for 18 h. LC separation was achieved with a Zorbax SB-Phenyl column (2.1 x 100 mm, 3.5-microm particle). Mass detection was performed by positive ion mode electrospray LC-MS-MS and included the following drugs/metabolites: nicotine, cotinine, morphine, 6-monoacetylmorphine, codeine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymeth-amphetamine, cocaine, benzoylecgonine, 7-aminonitrazepam, 7-aminoclonazepam, 7-aminoflunitrazepam, oxazepam, diazepam, alprazolam, zopiclone, zolpidem, carisoprodol, meprobamate, buprenorphine, and methadone. Within- and between-assay relative standard deviations varied from 2.0% to 12% and 2.7% to 15%, respectively. The accuracies were in the range of -24% to 16%, and recoveries ranged from 25% to 100%. The LC-MS-MS method proved to be simple and robust for the determination of drugs in hair. It has been used for authentic samples in our laboratory in the past year.
Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Division of Forensic Toxicology and Drug Abuse, PO Box 4404 Nydalen, NO-0403 Oslo, Norway. solfrid.hegstad@fhi.no
S
S
Hegstad
H Z
HZ
Khiabani
L
L
Kristoffersen
N
N
Kunøe
P P
PP
Lobmaier
A S
AS
Christophersen
D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000032:analysis*; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods*; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*
D013287:Illicit Drugs