Sensitive determination of pethidine in body fluids by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Akira Ishii, Miwa Tanaka, Rina Kurihara, Kanako Watanabe-Suzuki, Takeshi Kumazawa, Hiroshi Seno, Osamu Suzuki, Yoshinao Katsumata

Index: J. Chromatogr. B. Analyt. Technol. Biomed. Life Sci. 792(1) , 117-21, (2003)

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Abstract

We have presented a simple and sensitive method for determining pethidine, a narcotic analgesic drug in body fluids by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). Pethidine and 4'-piperidinoacetophenone (internal standard) were extracted from body fluids with Bond Elut C(18) columns; the recoveries were above 85% for both compounds. The calibration curves for blood and urine showed good linearities in the range of 1.25-40 ng/ml. Its detection limits (signal-to-noise ratio=3) were estimated to be approximately 0.5 ng/ml of whole blood and urine.