SOFT 2004 Meeting Abstracts - Society of Forensic Toxicologists

A42
EXTENDING AND IMPROVING SCREENING AND TARGET ANALYSIS UTILIZING LC-MS
Tania A. Sasaki'· I and Byron Curtis 2
IApplied Biosystems, 850 Lincoln Centre Dr., Foster City, CA 94404; 20ffice of the Chief Medical
Examiner, 901 Stonewall, Oklahoma City, OK 73117
GC/MS has long been a powerful and useful technique for analysis of complex mixtures, as well as target
analyses, because of its inherent specificity and sensitivity. However, the necessity for analytes to be labile
limits the types of compounds that can be analyzed utilizing this technique and also requires some
extensive sample preparation, such as derivatization, for successful analysis. However, over the past 15
years, LCIMS has grown in popularity due to its applicability for analysis of polar molecules, which
includes most drug and pharmaceutical compounds. LCIMS also has the capabilities to analyze higher
molecular weight compounds that are not easily examined by GC/MS due to their high boiling points;
derivatization is rarely, if ever, necessary. Furthermore, chromatographic analysis times are generally
between 10-40 minutes for LC, which are much shorter than the averagetimes used for GC analysis. This
paper examines the utility of LC/MS to reduce total analysis times of current protocols, as well as develop
methods to analyze or screen for compounds that have no current methodology in the forensics field.
Several types of compounds were studied for target analysis, both quantification and general screening,
covering a range from warfarins to common pesticides to neurontin. Currently, these compounds have
been analyzed by either GC/MS or immunoassay. However, the utility of these methods is limited by
throughput and/or cost. By using LC coupled with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, screening of
over 50 compounds in a single analytical experiment can be accomplished with low ppb detection limits.
Furthermore, the compounds can be analyzed with minimal sample preparation and short analysis times,
improving the throughput and greatly reducing expense.
Key words: Method development, Mass spectrometry, LCIMS
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