Adsorption of Therapeutic and Recreational Drugs During Prolonged Storage of Plasma Samples in Gel Separator Tubes.

ABSTRACT: Hospital samples collected in gel separator tubes are often submitted to forensic toxicology laboratories for analysis in impaired driving and death investigations. Drug adsorption to the gel separator material may lead to underestimation of the drug concentration present at the time of sample collection, potentially affecting the interpretation of analytical results. Using liquid chromatography--tandem mass spectrometry (LC--MS-MS), decreases in plasma concentration of 53 drugs and metabolites relevant to forensic toxicology casework were investigated in samples stored in BD Vacutainer® PSTTM tubes for up to 3 months. After storage for only 1 day, approximately 50% of the drugs and metabolites had significantly lower concentrations in plasma separation tubes (PSTs) compared to non-gel tub

SUBMITTER: Shepard CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10010251 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature