DETECTION OF BENZODIAZEPINES AND TRIBENZAZOLAMS BY TRIAGE(TM) - CONFIRMATION BY SOLID-PHASE EXTRACTION UTILIZING SPEC(R)CENTER-DOT-3ML-CENTER-DOT-MP3 MICROCOLUMNS AND GC-MS

A new point-of-care urine drugs-of-abuse testing device, the BIOSITE TRIAGE™, was evaluated for detection of benzodiazepines (BNZs). TRIAGE utilizes a unique, competitive, visual immunoassay methodology to simultaneously detect seven classes of drugs of abuse. Because of the unique ASCEND™ Multimmunoassay technology, conflicting results may arise when TRIAGE is compared with conventional immunoassay techniques. Apparent TRIAGE BNZ false-positive results may occur when gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) confirmation utilizes oxazepam as the analyte used to confirm the presence of BNZs. TRIAGE BNZ results were correlated with those of Syva EMIT (n = 106, overall agreement 85%). Both negative and positive urine samples were tested by GC-MS for the following drugs: oxazepam, nordiazepam, desalkylflurazepam, OH-ethylflurazepam, lorazepam, temazepam, α-OH-alprazolam and α-OH-triazolam. Urine samples were extracted using the new ANSYS SPEC “ 3ML ” MP3 solid-phase extraction microcolumn. The ANSYS procedure for BNZs was modified to include desalkylflurazepam, OH-ethylflurazepam, lorazepam, temazepam, α-OH-alprazolam, and α-OH-triazolam. Deuterated oxazepam and α-OH-alprazolam were used as internal standards. Limits of quantitation (LOQs) ranged from 25 to 100 ng/mL with a limit of detection of 25 ng/mL for all analytes. Individual analytes demonstrated within-run precision and between-run precision ranging from 0.9 to 4.7% CV and 1.3 to 16.9% CV, respectively. All analytes were linear from their LOQs to 1000 ng/mL. © 1994, Oxford University Press.