Examination of Firearms Review: 2007 to 2010 - Interpol

producing high-throughput SPME-LC methods [305,306,307]. While sorbents
in conventional 96-well systems are normally located in a polypropylene
pipette tip, a new sorbent with a monolithic plug was recently developed with a
high binding capacity and low back-pressure properties [308,309]. 96 samples
could be treated in 2-4 min with a good accuracy and precision. Monolithic
packed 96-tips have been used to extract anti-cancer drugs (busulphan,
cyclophosphamide, and roscovitine) [ 310 ], β-blocker drugs (pindolol and
metoprolol) [311], local anesthetics (ropivacaine and bupivacaine) [312], and
antidepressants (fluoxetine, setraline, paroxetine, citalopram, duloxetine, and
mirtazapine) [313] in plasma.
Other new coatings for SPME devices include sol-gel technology and
polypyrrole (PPY) coatings, which can be electrochemically discharged and
recharged when deposited on a metal wire [304, 314 ]. Among the two,
applications of PPY coated-fibre SPME is more focused on analysis of drugs.
The screening of methamphetamines in serum by SPME using
dodecylsulfate-doped PPY film has been reported [315]. In addition to a PPY
coating, other types of coatings for SPME of drugs in plasma have also been
studied [316,317,318].
3.3 Analysis of Specific Drugs
3.3.1 Markers for ethanol consumption
The diagnosis of alcoholism is a topical subject of discussion; in fact, many
studies have been published on the determination of biochemical markers of
alcohol abuse. EtG, EtS, 5-hydroxytryptophol-glucuronide (GTOL),
5-hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid (5-HIAA), and FAEE are all suggested as
biomarkers for recent alcohol ingestion, with longer detection times than
measurement of ethanol itself. The determination of EtG and/or EtS are
commonly performed by LC-MS/MS in blood/serum [319,320,321,322], urine
[319, 323 , 324 ], vitreous humor [321], oral fluid [319, 325 ], and hair
[326,327,328], but methods using GC-MS are also reported [136,329]. A direct
UPLC-MS/MS method to determine urinary GTOL and 5-HIAA was developed
[330]. The measuring ranges were 6.7-10,000 nmol/L for GTOL and 0.07-100
µmol/L for 5-HIAA. A direct injection UPLC-MS/MS method for measuring the
urinary ratio of GTOL and 5-HIAA was compared with that of an ELISA assay
for direct determination of GTOL in urine [331].
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