Retention Time Locking in the Determination of Narcotic Drugs by Chromatography and Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

The use of retention time locking (RTL) in the development of unified procedures for the detection and quantitative determination of drugs in biological fluids was considered. With consideration for the use of RTL, a chromatographic procedure with flame-ionization and mass-selective detection was developed for the detection and quantitative determination of opiates and their synthetic analogs; phenylalkylamine derivatives; cocaine; ketamine; and other narcotic drugs, their derivatives, and metabolites in urine. The analytical ranges for chromatography–mass spectrometry were 0.05–1000 and 0.005–1000 μg/mL under the conditions of total ion current (TIC) scanning and selected ion monitoring (SIM), respectively. With flame-ionization detection (GC–FID), the analytical range was 0.5–1000 μg/mL.