Analysis of 4‐fluoroamphetamine in cerumen after controlled oral application

Abstract

Cerumen was found to be a promising alternative specimen for the detection of drugs. In a pilot study, drugs of abuse were identified at a higher detection rate and a longer detection window in cerumen than in urine. In this study, cerumen from subjects was analyzed after they ingested the designer stimulant 4‐fluoroamphetamine (4‐FA) in a controlled manner. Methods Twelve subjects ingested placebo and 100 mg of 4‐FA. Five of them were also given 150 mg of 4‐FA in 150 mL Royal Club bitter lemon drink at least after 7 days. Cerumen was sampled using cotton swabs at baseline, 1 h after the ingestion of the drug and at the end of the study day (12 h). After extraction with ethyl acetate followed by solid‐phase extraction, the extracts were analyzed using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). Results and discussion In the cerumen of all 12 subjects, 4‐FA was detected 12 h after its ingestion; in most subjects, cerumen was detected after 1 h of ingestion, ranging from 0.06 to 13.90 (median 1.52) ng per swab. The detection of 4‐FA in cerumen sampled 7 days or more after the first dose suggested a long detection window of cerumen. Conclusions Cerumen can be successfully used to detect a single drug ingestion even immediately after the ingestion when a sufficient amount of cerumen is used.

Cancer evaluation in dogs using cerumen as a source for volatile biomarker prospection

“…It refers to secretions of the sebaceous and sweat glands containing polar and non-polar substances, mainly metabolic lipid-derived components. 16,17 Recently, cerumen VOMs have been successfully applied in diabetes diagnosis, 18,19 forensic applications, [20][21][22][23][24] toxicological monitoring purposes, [25][26][27][28][29] identification of rare otolaryngological disorder (Me ´nie `re's disease), 30 and human cancer diagnosis. 31 The chemical fingerprint of VOMs for use in disease detection is known as Cerumenogram.…”

Determination of fentanyl and norfentanyl in cerumen in the setting of postmortem investigation

“…Shokry et al (2017b) investigated the presence of certain antiepileptic, anxiolytic, and antipsychotic substances in 17 cadavers with a LC–MS/MS‐QTrap method [15]. In another study, Meier et al (2020) investigated the cerumen levels of 4‐fluoroamphetamine after 1 and 12 h of monitored intake in 12 subjects with a LC–MS/MS technique [16]. Finally, Nicolaou et al [2021] sampled cerumen from 4 cannabis users and developed an LC–MS/MS method for detecting and quantifying cannabinoids [17].…”