Commonly Practiced Quality Control and Quality Assurance Procedures for Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Analysis in Forensic Urine Drug-Testing Laboratories.
Forensic urine drug-testing laboratories operate in a prescribed scientific and administrative manner to ensure accurate test results. All specimens positive by an initial immunoassay test must be confirmed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). To provide adequate control and verification of these analytical processes, laboratories must implement appropriate policies and procedures to be used in routine practice. This review describes the following topics regarding GC/MS analyses: method validation, instrument performance, assay calibration, quality control, criteria for designating a positive test result, sample and batch acceptance criteria, and GC/MS data review.
Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA.
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Goldberger
Addiction Research Center, National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Institute of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services, Baltimore, MD, USA.
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Huestis
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.|Center for Huamn Toxicology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
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Wilkins
Accuracy; GC/MS; calibration; carryover; gas chromatography/mass spectrometry; internal standard; laboratory certification; limit of determination; limit of quantitation; linearity; precision; quality assurance; quality control; sensitivity