Simultaneous quantitative determination of amphetamines, ketamine, opiates and metabolites in human hair by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry
Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry February 20, 2008 Ya‐hsueh Wu, Keh‐liang Lin, Su‐chin Chen et al. 69 citations
A gas chromatography/mass spectrometry method was developed and validated to simultaneously quantify amphetamines, ketamine, and opiates in human hair samples. Hair specimens (25 mg) were washed, cut, incubated in methanol/trifluoroacetic acid, extracted by solid-phase extraction, and derivatized before analysis. Calibration curves for ten analytes were linear from 0.1 to 10 ng/mg with correlation coefficients above 0.999. Detection limits ranged from 0.03 to 0.08 ng/mg, and quantification limits from 0.05 to 0.1 ng/mg. Recoveries exceeded 88.6% for all compounds except ketamine and norketamine (71.7–72.7%). Testing eight hair samples from known polydrug abusers demonstrated the method's suitability for broad-spectrum drug testing in a single hair specimen.