Search results for "Substance Abuse Detection"

Inter-individual variation of the urinary steroid profiles in Swedish and Norwegian athletes.

2020

The steroidal module of the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) aims to detect doping with endogenous steroids, e.g. testosterone (T), by longitudinally monitoring several biomarkers. These biomarkers are ratios combined into urinary concentrations of testosterone and metabolically related steroids. However, it is evident after 5 years of monitoring steroid passports that there are large variations in the steroid ratios complicating its interpretation. In this study, we used over 11000 urinary steroid profiles from Swedish and Norwegian athletes to determine both the inter- and intra-individual variations of all steroids and ratios in the steroidal passport. Furthermore, we investigated if th…

Noninvasive double confirmation of cocaine abuse.

2013

A double confirmation procedure, based on the combined application of Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) and Infrared Spectroscopy (IR), has been developed for the noninvasive unambiguous identification of cocaine consume. The use of nasal mucus as a biological specimen for cocaine abuse confirmation has been proposed as an alternative to the use of blood and urine due to its noninvasive character and the presence of the parent compound instead of its metabolites. Sampling conditions, interferences caused by cutting agents and other substances, and limits of identification (LOI) and confirmation (LOC) have been deeply evaluated. The procedure combines the high sensitivity of the IMS to identif…

Development and validation of a reliable method for studying the distribution pattern for opiates metabolites in brain

2012

Abstract Brain distribution pattern of “street” heroin metabolites (morphine and codeine) was investigated in two fatalities due to “acute narcotism”. A suitable sample pretreatment prior to solid-phase-extraction was developed to achieve a good recovery of the analytes and to eliminate the interfering species. After derivatization with MSTFA, samples were analyzed by GC/MS. Specificity, accuracy, precision and linearity of the method were evaluated; LOD and LOQ were, respectively, 10 ng/25 ng for morphine and 5 ng/10 ng for codeine. This method was applied to the analysis of six brain areas (hippocampus, frontal lobe, occipital lobe, nuclei, bulb and pons) coming from two cases of heroin-r…

Cumyl-PEGACLONE: A comparatively safe new synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist entering the NPS market?

2018

Detection of gamma-hydroxybutyrate in hair: Validation of GC–MS and LC–MS/MS methods and application to a real case

2012

A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and a liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method were validated for quantifying endogenous and exogenous hair concentrations of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). The GC-MS method is based on overnight extraction of 25 mg hair in NaOH at 56 °C, liquid/liquid extraction in ethylacetate and trimethylsylil derivatization; analysis is by electron ionization and single ion monitoring of three ions. The LC-MS/MS method entails a rapid digestion of 25 mg hair with NaOH at 75 °C for 40 min, liquid/liquid extraction in ethylacetate and reconstitution of the extract in the LC mobile phase; negative ion electrospray ionization and multiple…

Analysis of ecstasy in oral fluid by ion mobility spectrometry and infrared spectroscopy after liquid-liquid extraction.

2014

We developed and evaluated two different strategies for determining abuse drugs based on (i) the analysis of saliva by ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) after thermal desorption and (ii) the joint use of IMS and infrared (IR) spectroscopy after liquid-liquid microextraction (LLME) to enable the sensitivity-enhanced detection and double confirmation of ecstasy (MDMA) abuse. Both strategies proved effective for the intended purpose. Analysing saliva by IMS after thermal desorption, which provides a limit of detection (LOD) of 160μgL(-1), requires adding 0.2M acetic acid to the sample and using the truncated negative second derivative of the ion mobility spectrum. The joint use of IMS and IR spe…

GHB related acids (dihydroxy butyric acids, glycolic acid) can help in the interpretation of post mortem GHB results.

2020

Post mortem gamma hydroxy butyric acid (GHB) concentrations should be interpreted with caution since GHB concentrations can increase after death. Post mortem concentrations after the intake of GHB ante mortem do overlap with concentration ranges in cases without known exposure to GHB and make an interpretation challenging. GHB is known to undergo intensive metabolism to related acids (glycolic acid (GA), succinic acid (SA), 2,4- and 3,4-dihydroxy butyric acid (2,4-OH-BA and 3,4-OH-BA)). GHB and these related acids were analyzed using a validated gas chromatographic mass spectrometric (GC-MS) method after liquid liquid extraction and trimethylsilylation. SA concentrations were not usable pos…

Detection of γ‐hydroxybutyric acid‐related acids in blood plasma and urine: Extending the detection window of an exogenous γ‐hydroxybutyric acid inta…

2021

In crimes facilitated by γ-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) administration, the frequent occurrence of anterograde amnesia of the victims as well as the short detection window and variations of endogenous GHB concentrations complicate obtaining analytical proof of GHB administration. Because elevated endogenous organic acid concentrations have been found in the urine of patients with succinic semialdehyde deficiency (leading to accumulation of GHB in human specimens) and after GHB ingestion, we searched for an alternative way to prove GHB administration via detection of elevated organic acid concentrations in blood plasma and urine. We collected blood and urine samples from narcolepsy patients (n …

Mono-/polyintoxication with 5F-ADB: A case series.

2019

Abstract 5F-ADB is an indazole-based synthetic cannabinoid. In recent years, it has been detected in legal high products as well as in biological samples and is associated with serious adverse health, behavioral effects and even death. Due to the fast pace of the market of synthetic cannabinoids, data on such newly appearing substances are scarce. As pharmacological properties are often investigated in vitro or by using animal experiments, reports on synthetic cannabinoid findings in human samples along with corresponding case history descriptions are valuable for the interpretation of upcoming routine cases. Herein we report five cases with verified 5F-ADB consumption, including three fata…

Morphometric assessment of testicular changes in drug-related fatalities.

2000

Testicular sections of 50 deceased drug addicts were examined by light microscopy using morphometric methods and determining the extent of spermatogenesis by application of the Johnsen score count. Twenty cases of violent death served as reference sample. The study was aimed at obtaining data about the degree of germinal gland damage following the duration of the individual drug career, which was correlated to the histologic findings. Progressively reduced maturation of germinal cells, decrease of tubular diameter and height of sperm-producing epithelium were found the longer the individual case history has been. The results clearly indicated a substantial impairment of male fertility in th…