Detection of Some Drugs of Abuse From Fingerprints Using Liquid Chromatographymass Spectrometry

Abstract

Rationale and background: Drug abuse is considered a major contributor to both medical morbidity and mortality all over the world. It also represents an important health problem that has a great impact on the person's life both socially and economically. A few methodologies have been created for the identification of drugs of abuse "for example liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The aim of this work was to assess the possibility of detection of some drugs of abuse from fingerprints using LC-MS. Participants and methods: This study was conducted on 60 male participants. The diagnosis of drug abusers was based on the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders (DSM-V) and urine screening tests. These participants were classified into 2 groups; a control group consisted of 30 normal individuals (non-drug abusers) and a drug abuser group consisted of 30 individuals that abused tramadol or clonazepam or phenobarbital (10 individuals for each drug). Fingerprint imprints from all participants were taken on a filter paper previously soaked with methanol then LC-MS analysis was performed. The concentration of drugs in each sample was calculated using the regression equations between concentration in ng/ml and peak area of each reference standard. Results: All samples from drug abusers showed positive results with LC-MS, while all samples from the control individuals showed negative results. As regard the concentration of the drugs calculated in the drug abuser group, there was a significant increase among urban areas, secondary school, workers and those having positive family history. Conclusions and recommendations: The results of this study confirmed the possibility of detection of some drugs of abuse from fingerprints using LC-MS. So it is recommended to verify the applicability of this method in criminal cases involving drug handlers or on documents touched by abusers when only trace evidences are to be detected.