Determination of opiates and cocaine in hair using automated enzyme immunoassay screening methodologies followed by gas chromatographic–mass spectrometric (GC–MS) confirmation

Abstract The objective of this study was to develop a two-step strategy for analysis of opiates and cocaine in hair samples involving an immunological screening procedure followed by confirmation of results using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). A semi-quantitative automated competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methodology using Oral Fluid Micro-Plate Enzyme Immunoassays (Orasure Technologies, Inc.) was developed and validated. Applicability was proven by analysis of authentic head hair samples from drug users ( n =103) and from opiate associated fatalities ( n =21). The optimum cutoff values for the ELISA tests were 0.1ng cocaine-equivalents/mg hair and 0.05ng morphine-equivalents/mg hair using a 50mg hair sample. Both ELISA tests had a sensitivity of 100%, the specificity was 66% for cocaine-equivalents and 42% for morphine-equivalents. The intraassay precision was 11% for the cocaine and 3% for the opiates ELISA, while interassay precision was 12% for the cocaine and 4% for the opiates ELISA test. The actual analyte concentrations in the hair samples were determined using GC–MS and were between 0.04 and 5.20ng/mg for heroin (HER), between 0.04 and 30.01ng/mg for 6-monoacetylmorphine (MAM), between 0.03 and 11.87ng/mg for morphine (MOR), between 0.02 and 1.84ng/mg for codeine (COD), between 0.02 and 2.48ng/mg for acetylcodeine (AC), between 0.01 and 21.37ng/mg for cocaine (COC), between 0.03 and 10.51ng/mg for benzoylecgonine (BE) and between 0.05 and 1.26ng/mg for cocaethylene (CE). The automated ELISA tests were proven to be valid screening procedures for the detection of cocaine and opiates in hair as confirmed by GC–MS. Screening methods provide rapid and inexpensive automated pre-test procedures to detect drugs in hair or other matrices. For forensic purposes screening therefore represents an ideal complement to routinely applied GC–MS procedures.