title: UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS method for direct analysis of drugs of abuse in oral fluid for DUID assessment.
abstract: An ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry method for the direct analysis in oral fluid (OF) of several abused drugs and metabolites in a single chromatographic run was set up and validated. Amphetamine, methamphetamine, morphine, O-6-monoacetylmorphine, cocaine, codeine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methylenedioxyethylamphetamine, methylenedioxyamphetamine, methadone, benzoylecgonine (BEG), Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), ketamine, and cocaethylene were determined in a single chromatographic run with no sample pretreatment, after addition of the respective deuterated internal standards. The method was designed to perform a confirmation analysis on the residual OF samples after the preliminary on-site screening test, and it was applied on preservative buffers from different devices (Mavand Rapidstat, Concateno DDS, and Greiner Bio-One) or on neat OF samples. The method was suitable to be applied to the small amounts of sample available for the confirmatory analysis after the preliminary on-site screening or on undiluted OF samples. Limits of detection varied from 5 (morphine) to 0.2 ng/mL (methamphetamine, MDMA, BEG, and cocaethylene). The method was linear for all the substances involved, giving quadratic correlation coefficients of >0.99 in all the different preservative buffers checked. In addition, repeatability and accuracy were satisfactory for the majority of the substances, except for a few cases. The developed method was subsequently applied to 466 residual samples from on-site screening performed by police officers. Of these samples, 74 showed the presence of cocaine and metabolites; THC was detected in 49 samples. Two samples showed codeine and morphine while MDMA was detected in 11 samples and ketamine in four samples.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy. sabina.stranorossi@rm.unicatt.it
authors.forename: Sabina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Strano-Rossi
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Anzillotti
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Castrignanò
authors.forename: Marialinda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Felli
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Serpelloni
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mollica
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chiarotti
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000032:analysis*; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods*; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs