Amphetamines detection

Determination of precision was made by adding 1 yg of amphetamine to twenty 10-cm3 aliquots of a sample of urine. The mean amount of amphetamine detected was 0.98 yg + 0.09 standard deviations. 

Quantification. Gas Chromatography. In urine methylamphetamine and amphetamine, detection limit 10 ng/ml, ECD—M. Terada etal., J. Chromat., 1982, 237, 285-292. 

Figure 11.14 Analysis of amphetamines by GC-NPD following HS-SPME exti action from human hair (a) Normal hair (b) normal hair after addition of amphetamine (1.5 ng) and methamphetamine (16.1 ng) (c) hair of an amphetamine abuser. Peak identification is as follows 1, a-phenethylamine (internal standard) 2, amphetamine 3, methamphetamine 4, N-propyl-/3-phenethyamine (internal standard). Reprinted from Journal of Chronatography, B 707,1. Koide et ai, Determination of amphetamine and methamphetamine in human hair by headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas cliromatography with niti ogen-phosphoms detection, pp. 99 -104, copyright 1998, with permission from Elsevier Science.

I. Koide, O. Noguclii, K. Okada, A. Yokoyama, H. Oda, S. Yamamoto and H. Kataoka, Detemination of amphetamine and methamphetamine in human hak by headspace solid-phase microexti action and gas cliromatogi aphy with niti ogen-phosphorus detection , J. Chromatogr. B707 99-104(1998). 

The active drug and metabolites can be detected from the urine by thin-layer chromatography, gas-liquid chromatography, or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. However, assays are available only at specialized centers. Treatment of acute intoxication with mescaline is virtually identical to the treatment outlined for LSD intoxication. DOM-induced vasospasm responds well to intra-arterial tolazohne or sodium nitroprusside. Major life-threatening complications of hallucinogenic amphetamine derivatives include hyperthermia, hypertension, convulsions, cardiovascular collapse, and self-inflicted trauma. 

Rats that have lost dopamine and/or serotonin terminals following treatment with amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA, MDA, / -chloroamphetamine, or fenfluramine show little in the way of overt ehanges in appearanee or behavior. Dr. Rieaurte (this volume) emphasized the need for more studies in primates, since MPTP-treated miee also show little in the way of observable functional changes, whereas MPTP-treated monkeys show marked neurologie deficits. It may be neeessary to do more detailed analysis of speeifie behaviors and other funetional outputs that are influeneed by dopamine and/or serotonin neurons, to detect functional deficits induced by some neurotoxic drugs. For instance, specific behaviors sueh as appetite-eontrolled behavior (Leibowitz and Shor-Posner 1986), murieidal behavior (Katz 1980), and sexual behavior (Tucker and File 1983) elieited by drugs... 

Naphthalene-2,3-dicarboxaldehyde (NDA), which reacts with primary amines to give highly fluorescent cyanobenz[/]isoindole (CBI) derivatives, has also been used for determination of amphetamine-related compounds [70], dopamine, and norepinephrine [72] sub-fmol to fmol amounts of these were detected by HPLC with the PO-CL detection. 

As it can be observed in Fig. 2, three out of the 16 investigated compounds, namely, heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and its metabolite 2-oxo, 3-hydroxy-LSD (O-H-LSD), were not detected in any wastewater sample. Two other target analytes, 6-acetyl morphine (6ACM) and A9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), were only present in influent wastewaters and with low detection frequencies. The most ubiquitous compounds, present in all influent and effluent wastewater samples analyzed, were the cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine, and the amphetamine-like compounds ephedrine (EPH) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy). Cocaine, cocaethylene (CE, transesterification product of cocaine formed after the joint consumption of cocaine and ethanol), and morphine (MOR) were detected in all influent, but not in all effluent wastewaters (see Fig. 2). 

The ion-trapping mechanism provides a method of some forensic value for detecting the presence of alkaloids (e.g., narcotics, cocaine, amphetamines) in cases of death suspected to be due to overdosage of self-administered drugs. Drug concentrations in gastric contents may be very high even after parenteral injection. 

Radioimmunoassay (RIA) may sometimes be the method of choice for certain amines. Thus an 125I RIA method was developed for the specific detection of D-amphetamine (28) and D-methamphetamine (29) in urine, with LOD of approximately 25 pg/L. The method was compared with GC-MS and other commercially available amphetamine assays. Other drugs gave erroneous positive identification as 28 with the latter methods, whereas the results of RIA were negative377. 

Enantioseparation of nine amphetamine derivatives, methorphan, and propoxyphene was studied by comparing two different CSP typologies, a macrocyclic antibiotic CSP (vancomycin) and a native P-cyclodextrin CSP [123]. The suitability of the eluent systems to ESI interfacing was discussed, and a tandem mass spectrometric (MS/MS) detection method was developed. 

Koide I, Noguchi O, Okada K, Yokoyama A, Oda H, et al. 1998. Determination of amphetamine and methamphetamine in human hair by headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography with nitrogen—phosphorus detection. J Chromatogr B 707 99. 

Sherry RL, Rauw G, McKenna KF, Paetsch PR, Courts RT, et al. 2000. Failure to detect amphetamine or 1-amino-3-phenylpropane in humans or rats receiving the MAO inhibitor tranylcypromine. J Affect Disord 61 23. 

Santagati and associates (2002) reported a method for the determination of amphetamine and one of its metabolites, 4-hydroxynorephedrine by RP-HPLC with precolumn derivatization and amperometric electrochemical detection. The derivatization was performed with 2,5-dihydroxybenzaldehyde as the electroactive reagent. The compounds were separated on a Hypersil ODS RP-18. The detector oxidation was set at +0.6 volts. 

Several other methods have been published using RP-HPLC for the determination amphetamines and related derivatives. Studies have shown the determination of amphetamine and related derivatives in plasma, urine, and hair by RP-HPLC with precolumn derivatization and either UV/VlS or fluorescence detection. Various methods are employed by SPE technologies using Cl8 cartridges for sample cleanup prior to derivatization. The derivatized compounds were separated on analytical columns of various Cl 8 bonded phase materials. The methods generally used water/acetonitrile mobile phases operated in gradient mode. All studies reported extraction recoveries of 85-102% for all the analytes, with LLOQs ranging from 5 to 60 ng/ml (Tedeschi et al., 1993 Ealco et al., 1996 Hernandez et al., 1997 Al-Dirbashi et al., 1997 Al-Dirbashi et al., 2000 Soares et al., 2001). 

Al-Dirbashi O, Wada M, Kuroda N, Takahashi M, Nakashima K. 2000. Achiral and chiral quantification of methamphet-amine and amphetamine in human urine by semi-micro column high-performance liquid chromatography and fluorescence detection. J Forensic Sci 45(3) 708-714. 

Santagati NA, Ferrara G, Marrazzo A, Ronsisvalle G. 2002. Simultaneous determination of amphetamine and one of its metabolites by HPLC with electrochemical detection. J Pharm Biomed Anal 30(2) 247-255. 

Boatto, G., Nieddu, M., Carta, A., Pau, A., Palomba, M., Asproni, B., and Cerri, R. (2005). Determination of amphetamine-derived designer drugs in human urine by SPE extraction and capillary electrophoresis with mass spectrometry detection.. Chromatogr. B 814, 93—98. 

Heroin and amphetamine-like compounds (amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA or ecstasy, (R,R)(—)-pseudoephedrine (PS-EPH), and (lS,2R)(+)-ephed-rine hydrochloride (EPH-HCl), the last two measured together as total ephedrine) have so far only been detected in airborne particulates in Spain (Tables 5, 6 and 7). Mean heroin concentrations ranged between 10 and 50 pg/m (Table 5), with maximum daily levels reaching 80-90 pg/m. The maximum concentrations were detected in Madrid and A Coruna, and seemed to be independent of population size. As for amphetamine-like compounds, airborne levels were always below 15 pg/m ... 

Substituted HAs have been shown to be metabolic intermediates in the A-oxygenation of biogenic amines such as phenethylamine and amphetamine, and have been detected in the urine of experimental animals. The end products of these metabolic pathways are oximes, and will be discussed at length in Section III. 

A Ramseier, J Caslavska, W Thormann. Screening for urinary amphetamine and analogs by capillary electrophoretic immunoassays and confirmation by capillary electrophoresis with on-column multiwavelength absorbance detection. Electrophoresis 19 2956-2966, 1998. 

Methamphetamine passes the blood-brain barrier better than amphetamine, and there is evidence that chronic use of methamphetamine can result in permanent damage to dopamine neurons. Both pass the placental barrier, and there is some evidence that abuse by a pregnant woman can result in fetal abnormalities. Methamphetamine is found in breast milk. The half-life of methamphetamine and amphetamine is about 10 to 13 hours. Some methamphetamine is metabolized to amphetamine, and amphetamine-glucuronide can be detected in urine for about two days. About 50% of methamphetamine is excreted unchanged in the urine over two to three days. 

Vicks vapor inhaler, a decongestant, contains 1-metham-phetamine, listed on the container as levmetamfetamine. Use of this product results in only 1-amphetamine appearing in urine. If d-amphetamine is detected in urine, it could only have come from using d-methamphetamine or d-amphetamine-containing legal or illegal drugs. 

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