Forensic Urine Drug Screening

by Larry Coffin
(Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Photo Credit: Matt Allworth

Photo Credit: Matt Allworth

I am in the process of switching our forensic drug screening away from Emit assay with GC/MS confirmation to screening and confirmation by LC/MS/MS. We have always hydrolyzed our urine samples (various methods) and only dealt with total drug levels.

My question is when using the LC/MS/MS with ion trap is it advisable to hydrolyze our urine samples with beta-glucuronidase and then analyze or dilute samples and analyze combining free levels of drug and glucuronide metabolites for the total drug level?

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