Biological fluids drug analysis

The dense fluid that exists above the critical temperature and pressure of a substance is called a supercritical fluid. It may be so dense that, although it is formally a gas, it is as dense as a liquid phase and can act as a solvent for liquids and solids. Supercritical carbon dioxide, for instance, can dissolve organic compounds. It is used to remove caffeine from coffee beans, to separate drugs from biological fluids for later analysis, and to extract perfumes from flowers and phytochemicals from herbs. The use of supercritical carbon dioxide avoids contamination with potentially harmful solvents and allows rapid extraction on account of the high mobility of the molecules through the fluid. Supercritical hydrocarbons are used to dissolve coal and separate it from ash, and they have been proposed for extracting oil from oil-rich tar sands. 

J. Chamberlain, "Analysis of Drugs in Biological Fluids", CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL., 1985. 

Routine analysis of common designer drugs in human biological fluids (e.g., plasma, urine) is a major concern in doping control, surveillance of drug substitution, clinical toxicology, as well as forensic science.Method sensitivity is often an issue since many drugs... 

G Hempel. Strategies to improve the sensitivity in capillary electrophoresis for the analysis of drugs in biological fluids. Electrophoresis 21 691—698, 2000. 

RC Tim, RA Kautz, BL Karger. Ultratrace analysis of drugs in biological fluids using affinity probe capillary electrophoresis analysis of dorzolamide with fluorescently labeled carbonic anhydrase. Electrophoresis 21 220—226, 2000. 

In order to determine an optimum dosage regimen for a drug and to determine its mode of metabolism, methods for analysis of the drug and its metabolites in blood, urine and tissues have to be developed. Analysis of drugs in biological fluids and tissues by GC is quite common although GC-MS (see Ch. 9) has replaced many GC methods which are reliant on less selective types of detector. 

Very effective for the analysis of drugs and their metabolites in biological fluids. 

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