SPECIMEN FOR DRUG TESTING

 Urine – 30-60 mL (or 30-45 mL)

 Polyethylene bottle
 most convenient and efficient, easily collected, no pain/discomfort (non-invasive);
 can acquire high concentrations of a certain drug
 Blood – 10 mL in a plain red top tube (serum)
 Saliva – 30 mL - it reflects the active or free fractions of drugs
 Hair
 Tissue
 Fingernails
 Sweat – parent drug can be highly detected

URINE REQUIREMENT
 Temperature: within 32.5 – 37.7 °C
 if out of range, the specimen is altered/substituted
 Specific Gravity: within 1.003 – 1.005
 Urine Creatinine: < 20 mg/dL
 Electrolytes: within the physiologic limit

ADULTERANTS
Water Glutaraldehyde
Liquid Lemon Juice
Salt vinegar Cologne
Baking Soda Bleach
-Adulterants - affect results

METHODS
1. Enzymatic
 Alcohol Dehydrogenase Testing
 Quantify the sum of all alcohols present in the sample
 It does not distinguish alcohol from its metabolites during quantification

2. Immunoassay
 Enzyme-Multiplied Immunoassay Technique (EMIT)
 uses enzyme-labelled drug that competes with the drug in the sample

3. Capillary Electrophoresis
 Different analyte selectivity is based on different physicochemical principles of
separation without changes in instrumental hardware

4. Chromatographic Methods
 Thin Layer Chromatography
 Uses serum, urine, and gastric fluid for analysis
 Extraction is pH dependent – acidic drug at pH 4.5, alkaline drugs at pH 9.0

 Liquid Chromatography-MS
 Used to confirm positive test result from a screening test (nonvolatile
compounds)
 Used for poisoning detection, therapeutic drug identification and quantification,
pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism studies
  High Performance Liquid Chromatography
 Allows quantitative measurement of drugs as well as separation of these same
drugs especially antidepressant including active and inactive metabolites

 Gas Chromatography
 Gas Liquid Chromatography
 legally accepted method for Ethanol Testing
 Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
 “gold standard” for confirming screening methods
 give rise to fingerprint pattern of each compound analyzed
 allows detection of low levels of drugs

EMIT (ng/mL) GCMS (ng/mL)

Amphetamines 500 250
Marijuana 50 25
Cocaine 150 100
Opiates 2000 2000
Phencyclidine 25 25