title: Rapid Analysis of Cocaine in Saliva by Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy.
abstract: Increases in illicit drug use and the number of emergency-room visits attributable to drug misuse or abuse highlight the need for an efficient, reliable method to detect drugs in patients in order to provide rapid and appropriate care. A surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-based method was successfully developed to rapidly measure cocaine in saliva at clinical concentrations, as low as 25 ng/mL. Pretreatment steps comprising chemical separation, physical separation, and solid-phase extraction were investigated to recover the analyte drug from the saliva matrix. Samples were analyzed using Fourier-transform (FT) and dispersive Raman systems, and statistical analysis of the results shows that the method is both reliable and accurate, and could be used to quantify unknown samples. The procedure requires minimal space and equipment and can be completed in less than 16 minutes. Finally, due to the inclusion of a buffer solution and the use of multiple robust pretreatment steps, with minimal further development this method could also be applied to other drugs of interest.
authors.affiliation: Real-Time Analyzers Inc., 362 Industrial Park Road, Unit 8, Middletown, CT 06457, USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dana
authors.affiliation: Real-Time Analyzers Inc., 362 Industrial Park Road, Unit 8, Middletown, CT 06457, USA.
authors.forename: Chetan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shende
authors.affiliation: Real-Time Analyzers Inc., 362 Industrial Park Road, Unit 8, Middletown, CT 06457, USA.
authors.forename: Hermes
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Real-Time Analyzers Inc., 362 Industrial Park Road, Unit 8, Middletown, CT 06457, USA.
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Farquharson
keywords: Cocaine; Drug detection; Raman; SERS
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