1Senior Scientific Officer, Centre for Addiction Medicine, Department of Psychiatry
2Junior Scientific Officer, Centre for Addiction Medicine, Department of Psychiatry
3Professor, Centre for Addiction Medicine, Department of Psychiatry
4Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), No. 2900, Hosur Road, Bangalore, India
*Corresponding Author: Dr. Priyamvada Sharma, PhD Senior Scientific Officer, CAM, NIMHANS, Bangalore-560029, India, E-mail: ps842010@gmail.com
Online published on 17 July, 2019.
This work reports a sensitive and specific gas chromatography (GC) mass spectrometry (MS) method for the detection of subnanogram concentrations of fentanyl in plasma.
Fentanyl is a high-potency, rapid-onset synthetic opioid prescribed for the treatment of chronic pain and used as a surgical anesthetic. In the past decade its abuse and accidental overdose have steadily been on the rise.
This study was planned to develop an analytical procedure for fentanyl detection in biological samples which will help in to distinguish between therapeutic drug use and abuse. For sample preparation Solid phase extraction coupled (SPE) was opted while quantification was done with Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS). GC-MS is among the best known precise and effective techniques for biological samples analysis. Chromatographic separation was achieved on using DB-5MS column on a selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode.
Signal to noise ratio was 3: 1. The linearity lay between 0.62–40ng/ml correlation coefficient was ≥ 0.9899 and recovery was ≥80%. Limit of Detection was 0.6ng/ml and limit of quantification was 0.24ng/ml.
Current analytical procedure for fentanyl quantification had good specificity and sensitivity and showed good recovery. This method will be helpful for quantification of fentanyl in clinical and can be applied to forensic as well.
Gas chromatography, Mass Spectrometry, Solid phase extraction
