Comprehensive Drug Screening and Quantitation

Keywords emergency toxicology poisoning full scan screening targeted non-targeted analysis liquid-liquid extraction one-point calibration 

The analytical tasks in emergency toxicology laboratories are manifold and comprise for instance the support for poisonings, detoxication or diagnosis. The described analytical workflow covers the full scan screening, spectrum identification and a fast one-point calibration for quantitation (Maurer, 2007, 2012 Meyer, Weber and Maurer, 2014). 

The extracts are analysed using a single quadrupole GC-MS system. As analytical column a 12 m short non polar capillary column with 0.2 mm ID and a thick film of 0.33 pm has been used. One microlitre of the extract has been injected in splitless mode. 

For the GC-MS quality control check a methanolic solution of typical drugs is injected routinely. The ratio of peak areas between morphine and codeine (both at 50 ng/pL concentration) should be at least 1 10 as minimum QC requirement. Otherwise the system requires preventive maintenance. 

The set of drugs comprising the described screening solution shown in Table 4.58 was based on the experience of the most often quantified compounds by GC-MS in the referenced laboratory and selected for a fast and reliable quantification in emergency toxicology (Meyer, Weber and Maurer, 2014). 

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