Retention Indices and Dual Capillary Gas Chromatography for Rapid Identification of Sedative Hypnotic Drugs in Emergency Toxicology

Abstract

Recent advances in capillary column technology and gas chromatographic instrumentation allow the reproducible qualitative and semiquantitative determinaton of drugs in biological samples. A simple, cost-effective, and time saving method is described that utilizes a retention index library for drug identification in emergency toxicology. Samples need not be derivatized because of the inertness of the fused silica capillary system. Dual columns of different polarity are utilized to identify and simultaneously confirm results of biological drug extracts. A summary of the BASIC program used for retention index calculation and library search is included. Results from twenty double blind split specimen analyses are reported.