Determination of cocaine in abuser hairs by CE: monitoring compliance to a detoxification program.
BACKGROUND
Segmental hair analysis was performed to verify the cocaine withdrawal and compliance to the therapy of four cocaine abusers that were following a drug detoxification program. RESULTS/METHODOLOGY: Cocaine and its major metabolite, benzoylecgonine, were preconcentrated and determined by in-line SPE and CE with prior isolation of the analytes from the hair matrix by an overnight acidic incubation procedure. The LODs obtained for hair samples were 0.02 ng/mg for cocaine and 0.1 ng/mg for benzoylecgonine.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results showed that the established method, in conjunction with a segmental hair analysis, is suitable for determining drug abuse histories, being very useful in forensic toxicological laboratories as well as in rehabilitation and addiction treatment programs.
Department of Analytical Chemistry & Organic Chemistry, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Sescelades Campus, Tarragona, Spain.
Tatiana
T
Baciu
Francesc
F
Borrull
Marta
M
Calull
Carme
C
Aguilar
D000328:Adult; D053000:Analytic Sample Preparation Methods; D003042:Cocaine / Q000032:analysis* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D019075:Electrophoresis, Capillary / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010349:Patient Compliance; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D052616:Solid Phase Extraction; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods*
D003042:Cocaine