Identification and quantification of 34 drugs and toxic compounds in blood, urine, and gastric content using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry.

A liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for the simultaneous screening of 34 drugs and poisons in forensic cases. Blood (0.5 mL, diluted 1:1 with water) or 1.0 mL of urine was purified by solid-phase extraction. Gastric contents (diluted 1:1 with water) were treated with acetonitrile, centrifuged, and supernatant injected. Detection was achieved using a Waters Alliance 2695/Quattro Premier XE liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry system equipped with electrospray ionization, operated in the multiple reaction monitoring modes. The method was validated for accuracy, precision, linearity, and recovery. The absolute recovery of drugs and toxic compounds in blood was greater than 51% with the limit of detection in the range of 0.02-20 ng/mL. The absolute recovery of drugs and toxic compounds in urine was greater than 61% with limit of detection in the range of 0.01-10 ng/mL. The matrix effect of drugs and toxic compounds in urine was 65-117% and 67-121% in blood. The limit of detection of drugs and toxic compounds in gastric content samples were in the range of 0.05-20 ng/mL. This method was applied to the routine analysis of drugs and toxic compounds in postmortem blood, urine, and gastric content samples. The method was applied to actual forensic cases with examples given.