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UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS method for direct analysis of drugs of abuse in oral fluid for DUID assessment

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Abstract

An ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry method for the direct analysis in oral fluid (OF) of several abused drugs and metabolites in a single chromatographic run was set up and validated. Amphetamine, methamphetamine, morphine, O-6-monoacetylmorphine, cocaine, codeine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methylenedioxyethylamphetamine, methylenedioxyamphetamine, methadone, benzoylecgonine (BEG), Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), ketamine, and cocaethylene were determined in a single chromatographic run with no sample pretreatment, after addition of the respective deuterated internal standards. The method was designed to perform a confirmation analysis on the residual OF samples after the preliminary on-site screening test, and it was applied on preservative buffers from different devices (Mavand Rapidstat, Concateno DDS, and Greiner Bio-One) or on neat OF samples. The method was suitable to be applied to the small amounts of sample available for the confirmatory analysis after the preliminary on-site screening or on undiluted OF samples. Limits of detection varied from 5 (morphine) to 0.2 ng/mL (methamphetamine, MDMA, BEG, and cocaethylene). The method was linear for all the substances involved, giving quadratic correlation coefficients of >0.99 in all the different preservative buffers checked. In addition, repeatability and accuracy were satisfactory for the majority of the substances, except for a few cases. The developed method was subsequently applied to 466 residual samples from on-site screening performed by police officers. Of these samples, 74 showed the presence of cocaine and metabolites; THC was detected in 49 samples. Two samples showed codeine and morphine while MDMA was detected in 11 samples and ketamine in four samples.

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Acknowledgments

The present work was supported by the Italian “Dipartimento delle Politiche Antidroga,” through the project “TOXTEST.” Special thanks go to the Italian “Dipartimento di Polizia Stradale” and to police officers that performed on-site screening tests and collected OF samples. We are also grateful to Agilent Technologies for its technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Legal Medicine, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, L.go F. Vito 1, 00168, Rome, Italy

    Sabina Strano-Rossi, Luca Anzillotti, Erika Castrignanò, Marialinda Felli & Marcello Chiarotti

  2. Department of Antidrug Policies, Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Via Po 16/A, 00198, Rome, Italy

    Giovanni Serpelloni & Roberto Mollica

Authors
  1. Sabina Strano-Rossi
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  2. Luca Anzillotti
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  3. Erika Castrignanò
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  4. Marialinda Felli
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  5. Giovanni Serpelloni
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  6. Roberto Mollica
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  7. Marcello Chiarotti
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Correspondence to Sabina Strano-Rossi.

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Strano-Rossi, S., Anzillotti, L., Castrignanò, E. et al. UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS method for direct analysis of drugs of abuse in oral fluid for DUID assessment. Anal Bioanal Chem 401, 609–624 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-011-5108-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-011-5108-y

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