Rapid confirmation and quantitation of drugs-of-abuse in oral fluid using a low cost, small footprint mass spectrometer

Simplified screening approach of anabolic steroid esters using a compact atmospheric solid analysis probe mass spectrometric system

Due to the absence of chromatographic separation, ambient ionization mass spectrometry had the potential to improve the throughput of control laboratories in the last decades and will soon be an excellent approach for on-site use as well. In this study, an atmospheric solids analysis probe (ASAP) with a single quadrupole mass analyzer has been evaluated to identify anabolic steroid esters rapidly. Sample introduction, applied scan time, and probe temperature were optimized for sensitivity. The in-source fragmentations of seventeen selected steroid esters, commonly found in illicit samples, were determined by applying different cone voltages (12, 20, 30, and 40 V). A spectral library was created for these steroid esters based on the four stages of in-source fragmentation spectra. The applicability of this method was demonstrated for the rapid identification of steroid esters in oily injection solutions, providing test results in less than 2 min.

Atmospheric Solids Analysis Probe Coupled to a Portable Mass Spectrometer for Rapid Identification of Bulk Drug Seizures

The emergence of ambient ionization techniques and their combination with smaller, cheaper mass spectrometers is beginning to make real the possibility of mass spectrometry measurements being made routinely outside of traditional laboratory settings. Here, we describe the development of an atmospheric solids analysis probe (ASAP) source for a commercially available miniaturized, single-quadrupole mass spectrometer and subsequent modification of the instrument to allow it to run as a deployable system; we further go on to describe the application of this instrument to the identification of the contents of drug seizures. For the drug seizure analysis, a small quantity of the material (powder, tablet, resin, etc.) was dissolved in ethanol and shaken to extract the analytes, the resulting solutions were then sampled by dipping a sealed glass capillary into the solution prior to analysis by ASAP-MS. Identification of the contents of the seizures was carried out using a NIST searching approach utilizing a bespoke spectral library containing 46 compounds representative of those most commonly encountered in UK forensic laboratories. In order to increase confidence in identification the library sample and subsequent analyses were carried out using a four-channel acquisition method; each channel in this method used a different cone voltage (15, 30, 50, and 70 V) inducing differing levels of in-source fragmentation in each channel; the match score across each channel was then used for identification. Using this developed method, a set of 50 real-life drug samples was analyzed with each of these being identified correctly using the library searching method.