Alternative Specimens

Kintz P, Samyn N. 2002. Use of alternative specimens drugs of abuse in saliva and doping agents in hair. Ther Drug Monit 24 239. 

Porphyrins and porphyrin precursors are assayed most often in a 24-h urine collected without additive. Alternatively, untimed urine samples may be used and excretion standardized to creatinine. The latter is especially recommended for children and in emergency situations. Alternative specimens for porphyrins are plasma, erythrocytes, and feces, depending on the medical indication. During collection and until arrival at the laboratory, specimens should be kept cold, preferably at about 4°C, and protected from light. Specimens in the laboratory are best kept frozen, as the metabolites in body fluids are stable at -20°C for at least 3 months. Some exceptions have been noted below. 

Lew authors described antidepressant analysis in alternative specimens, such as hair or oral fluid. LC-CID-MS and MS/MS mass spectra libraries for identification of several drugs were employed by Muller et al. [32] for the detection of maprotiline, citalopram, and their desmethyl metabolites in authentic hair specimens extracted ions chromatograms were employed for subsequent antidepressant quantification. Also Klys et al. [33] applied LC-MS/MS to the analysis of blood, urine, and hair specimens in a fatal case due to clomipramine overdose in combination with alcohol. Blood clomipramine and norclomipramine concentrations explained the fatal outcome, and hair analysis confirmed that the deceased was on clomipramine treatment for, at least, 12 months prior to his death. With regard to oral fluid analysis, de Castro et al. [34] developed and validated a... 

Plasma is the main biological sample used in clinical and toxicological analysis, as concentrations found in this matrix are correlated to the pharmacological effect, as well as to the side and toxic effects. However, oral fluid has also been employed in some specific applications because of the advantages associated to this alternative specimen easy, painless, and noninvasive collection, which does not require qualified personnel, it represents the free analyte fraction, and it has a window of detection similar to that in plasma. Within the possible applications of oral fluid analysis, two are of special relevance ... 

TDM As previously stated in this chapter, TDM is recommended for TCAs and, in special situations, for the new generations of antidepressants. However, several factors can affect diffusion of the analytes from plasma to oral fluid (pH, oral contamination, collection with or without stimulation). Therefore, the correlation between antidepressant plasma and oral fluid concentrations should be studied before using this alternative specimen for TDM purposes. 

Gallardo E, Queiroz JA (2008) The role of alternative specimens in toxicological analysis. Biomed Chromatogr 22(8) 795-821. doi 10.1002/bmc.l009... 

Alcohol is measured in postmortem blood and vitreous humor. Muscle has been proposed as a useful alternative specimen to postmortem blood. 

CaplanYH, Goldberger BA. Alternative specimen for workplace drug testing. J Anal Toxicol 2001 25 396-9. 

Garriott JC. Skeletal muscle as an alternative specimen for alcohol and drug analysis. J Forensic Sci 1991 36 60-9. 

A specimen of finite thickness may be viewed simply as a shce taken from the penny-shaped crack specimen (Fig. 4.6). As a penny-shaped crack embedded in a large body, the crack-tip stress field is not affected by the external boundary surfaces and plane strain conditions that prevail along the entire crack front. As a slice, however, the crack in this alternate specimen is now in contact with two free... 

The alternative specimens are center notched (CN). double-edge notched (DEN) and single-edge notched (SEN) tensile specimens. Unlike DCB tests, these tests produce a single load-slow crack growth. The formulae used to compute are [195] ... 

Fracture surfaces are often viewed by scanning electron microscopy. Such surfaces may be those of parts that failed in service or testing alternatively, specimens may be fractured at sub-glass transition temperatures to facilitate morphological analysis. Cleavage of polyethylene samples at low temperatures invariably occurs across the equators of spherulites or between them in the regions of low ciystallinity. 

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