Enhanced Studies of LC/MS/MS Capabilities to Analyze Toxicology Postmortem Samples

The goal of this award is to further develop and refine procedures to successfully identify and quantitate morphine, hydromorphone, and THCA which did not produce adequate sensitivity or were not detected because of early elution from the column. The scope of drug classes that can be analyzed using LC/MS/MS after a simple extraction will be expanded to include acidic drugs and barbiturates. As part of the project, stability of drugs over time will be examined as past research has shown that several drugs degrade during storage of blood samples. Methods developed from this and the initial project will be disseminated to the forensic community through a series of hands-on workshops.

ca/ncf