Toxicological Screening and Quantitation Using Liquid Chromatography/Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

In recent years, an increasing number of new designerdrugs have increased the demands for general toxicological screening [1]. Limited screening based on immunoassays is commonly used in clinical toxicology, whereas more comprehensive approaches are common in forensic toxicology such as screening based on Gas or Liquid Chromatography (GC or LC) approaches [2]. The classic approach has been gas chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) combined with LC-diode-array detection (DAD) for systematic toxicological analysis. This setup has the advantage of covering a very broad spectrum of drugs and illicit substances when combined with library search facilities. However, the analytical sensitivity and specificity of LC-DAD may not be optimal. Thus, more sensitive and specific screening techniques based exclusively on LC combined with mass spectrometry have gained popularity. Multi-target screening and quantitation methods based on LC-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) may provide detection of hundred or more compounds [3]