Citation

Müller VV, Hahn RZ, Lizot LLF, Schneider A, da Silva CP, Gerbase FE, Pereira D, Linden R, Antunes MV. Forensic Sci. Int. 2020; 315: e110428.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.forsciint.2020.110428

PMID

32771886

Abstract

The use of psychoactive substances has been associated with increased risk for traffic accidents. Hair testing has become a routine practice in clinical and forensic toxicological laboratories, with a unique perspective in the investigation of drug consumption. The study aimed to develop and validate a UHPLC-MS/MS method for the determination of multiple drugs in hair, to be used for toxicological examination in driving license granting. Sample preparation was a one-step liquid extraction of milled hair with methanol, which was incubated for 15h at 50°C. The chromatographic separation was performed in a reversed phase column, with a run time of 2.2min. Measured compounds were cocaine, benzoylecgonine, norcocaine, anhydroecgonine methyl ester, cocaethylene, amphetamine, methamphetamine, methylenedioxyamphetamine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine, fenproporex, amfepramone, mazindol, codeine, morphine, 6-monoacetylmorphine, and tetrahydrocannabinol. The assay was linear for all substances (r>0.99), accurate (86.63-105.87 %), and precise, with a cv ranging from 1.9-13.5 % for intra-assay and 3.3-14.3 % for inter-assay. There was no significant carry over effect and the internal standard corrected matrix effect was minimal. The relative uncertainty percentages were below 9% for all the substances at cut-off values. The method was successfully applied to 50 hair samples from injured drivers, with 12% of positivity, including cocaine, MDMA and THC.

Language: en

Keywords

driving license; Drugs of abuse; Hair; Toxicological analysis; UHPLC-MS/MS