Browsing by Subject "Drug Screening"

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    Paper spray mass spectrometry (PS-MS) for toxicological drug screens and biomonitoring of chemical warfare agent exposure
    (2017) McKenna, Josiah Michael; Manicke, Nicholas
    Paper spray is an ambient ionization technique for mass spectrometry that is well-known for its ability to accomplish rapid and sensitive analyses without any need for sample preparation. This work further develops the technique in two major areas: negative ionization and drug screening. Negative ionization has always been an obstacle to electrospray-based ion sources because of its vulnerability to corona discharge, but methods are presented here to both quantify and suppress this electrical phenomenon, thus preventing it from interfering with qualitative/quantitative analyses. The validity of the discharge-suppressing method is demonstrated for both a simple screen of barbiturates and other acidic drugs (Chapter 2) and the detection and quantitation of chemical warfare agent hydrolysis products (Chapter 3). Additionally, a positive ion drug screen is applied to the analysis of postmortem blood samples (Chapter 4), achieving rapid and effective screening of 137 different drugs ranging from pharmaceuticals to drugs of abuse. The performance of this screen is also evaluated by comparing the results of the postmortem samples to those obtained using a more established series of assays. The research contained herein presents strides toward forensic application of paper spray mass spectrometry, especially in disciplines related to forensic toxicology.
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    Paper spray mass spectrometry for rapid drug screening
    (2017-08) Jett, Rachel; Manicke, Nicholas; Goodpaster, John; McLeish, Michael
    Paper spray mass spectrometry is an alternative technique for toxicological screening that is able to quickly and adequately screen for compounds encountered in postmortem investigations with little sample handling and no sample preparation. For analysis of dried blood spots using a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, detection criteria were defined to align with relevant regulatory guidelines while considering how fragment ion selection, method sensitivity, and fragment ion ratio tolerances are best utilized in paper spray mass spectrometry. For analysis, drugs and drug metabolites relevant to postmortem investigations were spiked into drug-free blood, and by monitoring two fragment ion channels in selected reaction monitoring mode, as well as the ratio between the two fragment ions, a method was developed capable of detecting over 120 drug and drug metabolites at concentrations relevant to postmortem drug screening. Total analysis time for the developed method is less than 8 minutes, and less than 50µL of sample and 5mL of solvent are consumed during analysis.