Automated Analysis for Drugs in Urine

Automated methods are described for extracting drugs from urine and for subsequently detecting them by ultraviolet or visible absorptiometry, or by spectrofluorometry. Standard Technicon AutoAnalyzer equipment has been adapted for use in the extraction processes; and manifolds for barbiturates, morphine, and bases are described. For drugs extracted from urine, the limits of detection were 2.5 , µg/ml for barbiturates and 0.2 µg/ml for morphine, Results are given for processing 204-ml samples of urine per hour for morphine and 10 8-ml samples per hour for barbiturate and basic drug analysis.