title: Simultaneous quantitation of amphetamines and opiates in human hair by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
abstract: In this study, an incubation, solid-phase extraction (SPE) and LC-MS-MS procedure was developed, validated and used for simultaneous analysis of amphetamine (AP), methamphetamine (MA), morphine (MOR), codeine (COD), 6-acetylmorphine (6-AM) and 6-acetylcodeine (6-AC) in hair. Hair samples were initially cut into sections, washed with dichloromethane, then sonicated in a methanol-trifluoroacetic acid mixture. The resulting solutions were processed with a SPE procedure before undergoing LC-MS-MS analysis. Mass spectrometric analysis was performed in positive-ion, multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode, using appropriate collision energy for each selected precursor ion. The overall protocol, when applied to the analysis of hair (50 mg) samples fortified with 100-10,000 pg/mg of the analytes, was found to achieve 55.5-74.6% recovery of the six analytes with the following analytical parameters: (i) intra- and interday precision/accuracy data for the six analytes in the 1.6-7.6%/-6.0-12.8% and 1.3-6.6%/-6.9-9.3% ranges, respectively; (ii) r(2) > 0.998 for all six analytes and (iii) LOD 2 pg/mg for AP and MA, and 8 pg/mg for MOR, COD, 6-AM and 6-AC; LOQ 10 pg/mg for all six analytes. This method was then utilized to (i) analyze hair samples collected from 86 self-reported drug users and (ii) evaluate the deposition pattern of drugs in head hairs from four female MA and heroin users in a rehabilitation facility. This relatively simple protocol was found superior over the GC-MS methods we have previously developed and utilized in our laboratory for the analysis of these six analytes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Toxicology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hsiu-Chuan
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Justice Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Ray H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Toxicology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, Taipei, Taiwan dllin@mail.moj.gov.tw.
authors.forename: Dong-Liang
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D019969:Amphetamine-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D000662:Amphetamines / Q000032:analysis*; D002138:Calibration; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D053593:Forensic Toxicology / Q000379:methods*; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D003932:Heroin / Q000032:analysis*; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D016014:Linear Models; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D052616:Solid Phase Extraction; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: D000662:Amphetamines; D003932:Heroin