Rapid simultaneous determination of ephedrines, amphetamines, cocaine, cocaine metabolites, and opiates in human urine by GC-MS

This paper presents a simple and sensitive chromatographic procedure for the simultaneous determination and quantification of ephedrines, amphetamines, cocaine, cocaine metabolites, and opiates in human urine by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. This method involves enzyme hydrolysis in the presence of a deuterated internal standard, liquid-liquid extraction, and derivatization with pentafluoropropionic anhydride and pentafluoropropanol. The recovery of each compound averaged at 65.8% or more. The limits of detection determined for each compound by using a 2-mL sample volume ranged from 5 to 50 ng/mL. The calibration curves were linear to 1000 ng/mL for all compounds when determined using methamphetamine-d(4) and MDMA-d(5) as internal standards. This method was successfully applied for the analysis of urine samples suspected to contain intoxicants such as methamphetamine and heroin. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.