Validation of a method to detect cocaine and benzoylecgonine in human whole blood by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and application in body packers and stuffers cases in the north of chile

• FELIPE BRAVO ^[1] ; MARÍA CECILIA CONTZEN ^[2] ; JULIO MOLLO ^[1] ; PEDRO BUC CALDERON ^[1] ; JULIO BENITES ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad Arturo Prat

     Universidad Arturo Prat

     Iquique, Chile

     
  2. [2] Servicio Médico Legal Laboratorio Referencial Norte
• Localización: Journal of the Chilean Chemical Society (Boletín de la Sociedad Chilena de Química), ISSN-e 0717-6309, ISSN 0366-1644, Vol. 57, Nº. 3, 2012, págs. 1253-1255
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The present paper describes a method for the simultaneous determination of cocaine and benzoylecgonine in human whole blood. The drugs were extracted with phosphate buffer at pH 6, followed by solid-phase extraction and quantification by GC/MS with electron impact ionization using helium as carrier gas. Quantification was performed using cocaine-d3 as internal standard in selected ion monitoring mode. The method is very simple, rapid and sensitive. The specificity, linearity, intra- and inter-assay precision and accuracy, and extraction recovery were fully evaluated. The limits of detection were 3.6 ng/mL for cocaine and 6.8 ng/mL for benzoylecgonine. The method was applied to blood samples removed at autopsy from body packers and stuffers cases in the I - IV and XV regions of Chile during 2008-2010.