Problems of Forensic Sciences 2005 Vol. 63 (LXIII) 227-234
DETERMINATION OF FENTANYL AND ITS ANALOGUES IN TOXICOLOGICAL EXPERT ANALYSES
Agnieszka SKULSKA1,2, Maria KAŁA2, Andrzej PARCZEWSKI1,2
1Faculty of Chemistry, Jagiellonian University, Cracow
2Institute of Forensic Research, Cracow
Streszczenie
Fentanyl and its analogues are used in medicine (as anaesthetics and analgesics) and for non-medical (as narcotic and gas warfare agents) purposes. Fentanyl class compounds have high analgesic potency and they are used at very low doses. So these compounds appear in biological material at very low concentrations, not higher then several nanograms per millilitre or per gram. Drugs at these concentrations cannot be detected by means of routinely used screening procedures. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a screening method for identification and quantification of fentanyl and its three analogues (alfentanil, sufentanil and remifentanil) in biological material. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was applied. The elaborated method is characterised by a limit of quantification (LOQ) and limit of detection (LOD) ranging from 0.6 ng/ml to 2 ng/ml and from 0.2 ng/ml to 0.6 ng/ml, respectively for the four above-mentioned compounds. The method was applied to determination of fentanyl in three forensic cases.
Słowa kluczowe
Fentanyl; Alfentanil; Sufentanil; Remifentanil; LC-MS.