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QuEChERS sample preparation prior to LC-MS/MS determination of opiates, amphetamines, and cocaine metabolites in whole blood

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Abstract

Modern LC-MS/MS instruments have sensitivity and scanning velocity high enough to analyze many different compounds in single runs. Consequently, the sample preparation procedure has become the bottleneck for developing efficient, rapid, and cheap multi-compound methods. Here, we examined one-step sample preparation based on quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) salts to set up and validate a LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous determination of 35 drugs of abuse and their metabolites in whole blood. Despite large differences in physicochemical properties, this simplified QuEChERS extraction method yielded satisfactory recoveries (until 96 %) for the 35 molecules. The amounts of QuEChERS salts had no influence on extraction yield. Chromatographic separation was obtained in less than 6 min. LLOD and LLOQ were 3 and 5 ng/mL, respectively. The procedure was successfully validated and then applied to 253 cases of driving under the influence of drugs (DUID), collected over a 6-month period.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Service de pharmacologie, toxicologie et pharmacovigilance, CHU Limoges, 2 Ave Martin Luther King, 87042, Limoges Cedex, France

    Sylvain Dulaurent, Souleiman El Balkhi, Lauranne Poncelet, Jean-Michel Gaulier, Pierre Marquet & Franck Saint-Marcoux

  2. Université Limoges, UMR_S 850, 87000, Limoges, France

    Pierre Marquet & Franck Saint-Marcoux

  3. INSERM, U850, 87000, Limoges, France

    Pierre Marquet & Franck Saint-Marcoux

Authors
  1. Sylvain Dulaurent
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  2. Souleiman El Balkhi
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  3. Lauranne Poncelet
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  4. Jean-Michel Gaulier
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  5. Pierre Marquet
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  6. Franck Saint-Marcoux
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Franck Saint-Marcoux.

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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

For this type of study, formal consent is not required.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Dulaurent, S., El Balkhi, S., Poncelet, L. et al. QuEChERS sample preparation prior to LC-MS/MS determination of opiates, amphetamines, and cocaine metabolites in whole blood. Anal Bioanal Chem 408, 1467–1474 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9248-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9248-3

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