Urinary excretion of 11-nor-9-carboxy-delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THCCOOH) and cannabinoids was monitored in prison inmates. Urinary specimens were collected up to five times per day. EMIT (cutoff 20 ng/mL; EMIT20) and gas chromatography (GC) (cutoff 10.3 ng/mL, LOD 1.4 ng/mL) were used for cannabinoid screening and THCCOOH confirmation, respectively. Urinary creatinine concentrations were recorded. Of the samples with positive EMIT screens, 78% were confirmed by GC analysis. The plotting of THCCOOH/creatinine ratios (THCCOOH/C) versus time gave smoother excretion curves than THCCOOH concentrations alone. Based on THCCOOH/C the first 5 days after the last reported intake, the mean urinary excretion half-life was 1.3 days in infrequent users, and a median of 1.4 days was found in frequent users. In the latter group, apparent terminal urinary excretion half-lives up to 10.3 days were observed. The last positive specimens were found after 4 days for THCCOOH with cutoff 15.0 ng/mL (NIDA/SAMSHA), 5 days for THCCOOH with cutoff 10.3 ng/mL, and 12 days for cannabinoids (EMIT20) in infrequent users and after 17, 22, and 27 days, respectively, in frequent users. Increases in urinary cannabinoids were sometimes found without concomitant increase in THCCOOH or THCCOOH/C. One subject admitted new cannabis intake, after which marked increases in THCCOOH and THCCOOH/C were observed. In others, new intake was suspected. Considerable variations between consecutive specimens were also observed in THCCOOH concentration and THCCOOH/C ratio without suspicion of a new intake.

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Using isotope technique, the serum binding of amitriptyline (AT), nortriptyline (NT), and quinidine (Q) was measured by equilibrium dialysis in sera containing varying amounts of lipoproteins. Sera were obtained from 10 fasting subjects with normal to grossly elevated levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, or both. When the lipoproteins were removed from eight of the sera by a standard ultracentrifugation technique, the ratio bound/unbound (B/F) AT decreased an average of 47% (range 30% to 68%), NT an average of 54% (range 39% to 67%), and Q an average of 6% (range 0 to 16%). This decrease in the ratio B/F correlated linearly with the sum of serum concentrations of cholesterol and triglycerides for AT (r = 0.88) and NT (r = 0.82), but not for Q (r = 0.15). In three lipoprotein-depleted sera resuspended with lipoproteins at eight different concentrations ranging from 0 to 100% of the original content, there was a linear correlation between the ratio B/F for AT and NT and the lipoproteins, as evidence by cholesterol or triglycerides concentrations (r = 0.97 to 0.99), but not for Q (r = -0.17 to 0.36). Finally, in the original 10 serum samples, there was a linear correlation between the ratio B/F and the serum lipoproteins (sum of cholesterol and triglycerides) for AT (r = 0.89) and NT (r = 0.68), whereas there was no such relationship for Q (r = -0.15). These data indicate that basic drugs differ in binding characteristics (probably depending on lipophility).

A sensitive, fast, simple, and high-throughput enzymatic method for the quantification of ethanol in whole blood (blood) on Hitachi 917 is presented. Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) oxidizes ethanol to acetaldehyde using the coenzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), which is concurrently reduced to form NADH. Method development was performed with the aid of factorial design, varying pH, and concentrations of NAD+ and ADH. The linear range increased and reaction end point decreased with increasing NAD+ concentration and pH. The method was linear in the concentration range 0.0024-0.4220 g/dL. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.0007 g/dL and 0.0024 g/dL, respectively. Relative standard deviations for the repeatability and within-laboratory reproducibility were in the ranges 0.7-5.7% and 1.6-8.9%, respectively. The correlation coefficient when compared with headspace gas chromatography-flame ionization detection methods was 0.9903. Analysis of authentic positive blood specimens gave results that were slightly lower than those of the reference method.