title: Assessing cocaine abuse using LC-MS/MS measurements in biological specimens.
abstract: Cocaine use is still a problem in today's world, and this has several implications on human activities. Indeed, important problems related to cocaine derive from its use in situations where concentration and focus skills are necessary, namely while driving and/or working. The need of analytical methods for drug analysis in specimens of biological origin for proper documentation of human exposure is increasing. While GC-MS-based procedures represented the state-of-the-art of analytical techniques a few years ago, there is a growing trend for their replacement by LC-MS/MS, which can be justified by the increased sensitivity presented by these new technologies. This paper will review recently published papers on the use of LC-MS/MS-based procedures for cocaine measurement in biological specimens.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal e Ciências Forenses, Delegação do Sul, Rua Manuel Bento de Sousa, 3, 1169-201 Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Mário
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barroso
authors.affiliation: CICS-UBI - Centro de Investigação em Ciências da Saúde, Universidade da Beira Interior, Av. Infante D. Henrique, 6201-556 Covilhã, Portugal.
authors.forename: Eugenia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gallardo
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D003042:Cocaine / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry
chemical_list: D003042:Cocaine