title: Rapid determination of nine barbiturates in human whole blood by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
abstract: A rapid, simple and sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of nine barbiturates (barbital, phenobarbital, pentobarbital, amobarbital, secobarbital, thiopental, butalbital, butabarbital, and hexobarbital) in human whole blood. Barbiturates were extracted from 100 μL of human whole blood samples using a simple liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) procedure, and detected by LC-MS/MS. An UPLC C18 (2.1 mm × 100 mm, 1.7 µm) column was used at 40 °C for the separation and acetonitrile/water system was used as the mobile phase with gradient elution. This method showed excellent accuracy (86-111%) and precision (relative standard deviation <15%). The limits of detection (LODs) were 0.2 ng/mL for barbital and secobarbital and 0.5 ng/mL for the other barbiturates. The linearity ranged from 2 ng/mL to 2000 ng/mL, with r2> 0.99 over the range. This method achieved the separation and detection of pentobarbital and amobarbital at the same time in a convenient way. Moreover, it was both simple and sensitive for the determination of nine most commonly used barbiturate drugs, which was meaningful in the field of clinical and forensic toxicology. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China.|Department of Forensic Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Xinyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Zebin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Jiaolun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhibin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Yulan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, PR China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zheng
mesh_terms: D001463:Barbiturates / Q000097:blood*; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D053593:Forensic Toxicology / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives / Q000097:blood*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D001463:Barbiturates; D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives
keywords: LC-MS/MS; barbiturates; forensic toxicology; whole blood samples