AAFS 2012: Hair Analysis of Amphetamine using SPE & LC-MS/MS (Feb 22 730-900pm)

Apart from the standard matrices (blood, urine, and tissues) submitted to analytical toxicologist for drug testing, samples of hair are now becoming more and more popular are a means of determining drug exposure in individuals. Hair, because of its consistent growth rate can be analyzed for drug taking patterns in chronic users. The time window of detection can be viewed in terms of weeks and months, as opposed to hours and days for blood and urine. In this study (in collaboration with a major crime laboratory), hair samples from an individual subject were tested for the presence of several amphetamine type drugs (amphetamine, methamphetamine, methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), and methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)). This process involved digesting the samples with a strong base in the presence of deuterated internal standards, neutralizing, and extracting the digest using Clean Screen DAU (CSDAU206) SPE columns. After extraction, the test samples were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The recoveries of the individual amphetamine type drugs were found to be greater than 95%, with minimal matrix effects (less than 6%). The limits of detection and quantification for this procedure were 0.05, and 0.1 ng per mg of sample which demonstrates not only the sensitivity of the method but also the cleanliness of the extracts being analyzed. This method employed only 10 mg of sample for analysis which also demonstrates the efficiency of the SPE methodology.