SOFT 2004 Meeting Abstracts - Society of Forensic Toxicologists

M15
DRUG DETECTION IN ORAL FLUID: IDENTIFICATION OF POLY DRUG USE BY EIA AND GC­
MS
Joe Clarke 2 *, Lolita Tsanaclisl , and John Wicks! : !Tricho-Tech Limited, The Cardiff Medicentre, Heath Park,
Cardiff, CF14 4UJ, United Kingdom.; 2Altrix Healthcare Pic, Birchwood Science Park, Warrington, WA3 7BP,
United Kingdom.
The analysis of drugs of abuse in oral fluid is becoming more widely used and accepted across a number of
testing disciplines, particularly because of its simplicity to collect in relation to urine. Commonly abused and
prescribed drugs are known to be detectable in oral fluid. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence
of a number of drugs in oral fluid with specimens collected from known and unknown drug users. The cut-off
levels for oral fluid are much lower then those for urine. Certain analytical methods that are used with urine
samples, including immunoassay and GC-MS, are not necessarily applicable for screening oral fluid specimens.
This study provides a compilation of data for the confirmation by GC-MSIEI, GC-MS/CI or GC-MS/MS of oral
fluid for a wide range of analytes. Oral fluid specimens (N=8911) were collected with prior consent from various
establishments in the U.K including private companies, rehabilitation clinics, and criminal justice services using
the Intercept® DOA collection device (OraSure Technologies, USA) according to manufacturer's instructions.
Specimens were initially screened for a combination of Opiates, Cocaine metabolites, Cannabinoids,
Amphetamines, Benzodiazepines and Methadone using separate OraSure Technologies Inc. micro-plate enzyme
immunoassays and Buprenorphine (Diagnostix Ltd, Canada), according to manufacturer's instructions.
For the confirmation analysis by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), the samples were cleaned
using Oasis® MCX Cartridges and derivatised with TFA or BSTFA (Sigma, Poole, UK). The derivatised
extracts were injected onto either gas-chromatograph HP5973 for GC-MSIEI and GC-MS/CI (Agilent, Berkshire,
UK) or Varian Inc. Saturn for GC-MS/MS (Walton-on-Thames, UK) equipped with capillary column 15mxO.25
mm Varian, Factor Four. The dynamic range was from 2 to 2000 ng/mL. Three ions for the drugs and two ions
for the internal standards were monitored. The confirmation rate for each drug group, relative to applied cut-off
levels, is presented in Table I.
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Table 1. Total oral fluid sampl es teste db)y GC.MSt)oreachdrug ~oup and con fiIrmatlon rates.
GCMS
Confirmation Rate
Drug Group N N %
Amphetamines 337 305 (91%)
Benzodiazepines 1027 823 (80%)
Buprenorphine 175 104 (59%)
Cannabis 632 316 (50%)
Cocaine 1358 1026 (76%)
1
Methadone 1536 11437 (94%)
Omates 116460 15189 (80%t I
Percentiles: 50% (Median), 95% and maximum levels for all analytes in each drug group were calculated and
will be presented. Detailed results for the Cocaine group of analytes are shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Results showing Percentiles: 50% (Median), 95% and maximum levels in ng/mL for Cocaine group.
Median 95% Maximum N
AEME 62.0 1409.1 3458.9 75
BenzoyJecgonine 49.1 566.0 5240.2 865
Cocaethylene 12.3 101.4 136.7 33
Cocaine 3004 2135.6 29613.4 843
Oral fluid testing offers a convenient, reliable and consistent method to determine the presence of poly-drug use
and can identifY the presence of specific drug metabolites by the GC-MS methods established.
Keywords: Drugs of Abuse, Oral Fluid, GC·MS
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