S. Vogt, J. Kempf, J. Buttler
May 24, 2013
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Influential Citations
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Drug testing and analysis
Abstract
In forensic cases, for example, cases of Munchhausen-by-proxy or drug-facilitated sexual assault, the clarification of the origin of detected drugs, even if they are present in trace levels only, is important. For this purpose liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/ MS) or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) methods have been developed for forensic toxicological analyses, which can be used besides more traditional screening procedures. For analysis of benzodiazepines and some of their metabolites in blood/ serum and urine, a comprehensive LC-MS/MS method was used. Midazolam is a narcotic drug with a half-life of 1.5 to 3 h in adults and 0.8 to 1.8 h in children over 12 months. It is applied mainly in emergency cases, in intensive care units, and before or during surgery. Flurazepam is a hypnotic drug, used as sleeping pill, which is rapidly metabolized during the first pass through the liver. Hence, blood and urine concentrations of the unchanged drug are low. The major metabolites in blood are desalkylflurazepam and 2-OHethylflurazepam, which are both pharmacologically active and accumulate when administered on a regular basis. Steady state concentrations of desalkylflurazepam after daily oral doses of 15 mg flurazepam were reported to range from 30 to 150 mg/L. The half-life of flurazepam is approximately 2 h. Desalkylflurazepam shows a significantly longer half-life of 74 24 h.