Utilizing Novel SPME LC Tips for Forensic Screening of Drugs of Abuse in Urine Samples

Introduction

The monitoring of drugs of abuse in biological matrices is a large and growing business for the laboratory testing industry. Testing urine for the presence of drugs of abuse requires methodology sensitive enough to monitor well below therapeutic levels and selective enough for clear identification of specific drugs without false positives. Current methodologies for urine analysis typically involve immunoassay, which is often not specific to an individual drug. This means samples must be subject to confirmation using LC/MS/MS or GC/MS. The importance of sample prep for improving sensitivity and robustness of MS methods is well-known. In this brief report, we will discuss the application of SPME for the extraction of metabolites of illicit drugs from urine samples with subsequent analysis by LC/MS/MS. Applying SPME to this type of analysis has been made possible with the introduction of new fibers that are compatible with HPLC solvents and biological samples.