Identification and quantitation of neutral and basic drugs in blood by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.

There is an increasing need for the quantitation of drugs that act on the central nervous system in blood of patients suspected of poisoning. A simple method for quantitative determination of neutral and basic drugs is described. The method involves a basic extraction without derivatization. The plasma extracts are injected on a Hewlett-Packard chromatograph using two nitrogen-specific detectors. In most cases, the comparison of relative retention times on the two columns is sufficient for identification of the ingested drugs. But when the method falls, the use of a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer equipped with a chemical ionization source is necessary.