Meconium, the first stool of a newborn, can be analyzed to identify prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse. Meconium accumulates in a fetus during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy providing a wide window of exposure. Identification of in utero drug exposure is essential for the diagnosis and treatment of infants for dependency/withdrawal caused from the exposure. However, testing of meconium samples is often cumbersome and time-consuming. Unlike liquid samples, meconium is a viscous, semisolid, tar-like substance that needs to be individually weighed prior to extraction. Additionally, the meconium matrix is not homogeneous and not easily mixed or extracted. A method for analyzing cocaine and metabolites as well as amphetamines in meconium utilizing ceramic homogenizers prior to salt-assisted liquid-liquid extraction and liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is presented.
CITATION STYLE
Goggin, M. M., & Janis, G. C. (2019). Salt-assisted liquid-liquid extraction of meconium for analysis of cocaine and amphetamines by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. In Methods in Molecular Biology (Vol. 1872, pp. 199–209). Humana Press Inc. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8823-5_19
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