A Fast Analytical Method for Determining Synthetic Cathinones in Oral Fluid by Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

In this paper, we present a method for simultaneously determining eleven synthetic cathinones in oral fluid by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Synthetic cathinones, a wide variety of which are available on the market, are constantly evolving. It is therefore important to provide efficient methods for determining cathinones in different matrices. A common matrix for detecting recent drug intake is oral fluid, which can easily be collected using one of numerous commercial devices. Most methods aimed at determining drugs in biological samples such as oral fluid require labour intensive and time-consuming sample-preparation steps. However, the pre-treatment of complex samples is often a challenge in the development of a method. For this reason, in this paper we present a simple, easy-to-handle alternative that uses a Salivette® device and pre-treats the sample in the same device. Matrix-matched calibration curves were used to cover the concentration range at which these substances are usually present in oral fluid from drug consumers. The method detection limits ranged from 0.003 and 0.03 ng/g and the method quantification limits were set at 0.075 ng/g. This is a simple, rapid and sensitive method with good potential for determining recent drug consumption in oral fluid.