Determination of 13 organic toxicants in human blood by liquid-liquid extraction coupling high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

Pesticides and antidepressants are frequently misused in drug-facilitated crime because of their toxicological effect and easy-availability. Therefore, it is essential for the development of a simple and reliable method for the determination of these organic toxicants in biological fluids. Here, we report on an applicable method by the combination of optimized liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) procedure and high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) to identify and quantify dimethoate, omethoate, dichlorvos, carbofuran, fenpropathrin, diazepam, estazolam, alprazolam, triazolamm, chlorpromazine, phenergan, barbitone and phenobarbital in human blood. The method demonstrated a linear calibration curve in range of 20-500 μg/L (r > 0.994). The accuracy evaluated by recovery spiked at three different concentrations (50, 100 and 200 μg/L) was in the range of 58.8-83.1% with a relative standard deviations (RSD) of 3.7-7.4%. The limits of quantification ranged over 6.7-33.3 μg/L. This method was proved to be simple and reliable, and was thus successfully applied to forensic toxicology. 2016.