Development of surface ionization mass spectrometry for detection of stimulants in human urine

This paper demonstrates direct detection of stimulants such as amphetamine, methamphetamine and cocaine spiked with untreated urine and a real world sample using surface ionization mass spectrometry. Spiked samples were analyzed without preliminary chromatographic separation and extraction procedure using the developed method. Moreover, in order to check the analytical capabilities of the method non-extracted real world sample was analyzed. After liquid-liquid extraction, the same sample was analyzed using the method for comparative study. Limit of detection of spiked samples was in the range of 10 pg (10 ng/ml) to 100 pg (100 ng/ml). Linear ranges of samples were two orders of magnitude or more than two orders of magnitude. It was revealed these spiked samples and real world sample can be analyzed without preliminary chromatographic separation and preliminary extraction procedure due to high selectivity of the method and the presence of the indicator lines of studied analytes in the mass spectra. The surface ionization mass spectrometry data was attested by the GC/MS analysis of these samples.