Citation

Dziadosz M, Klintschar M, Teske J. J. Forensic Sci. 2015; 61 Suppl 1: S250-1.

Affiliation

Institute of Legal Medicine, Hannover Medical School (MHH), Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, D-30625, Hannover, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.12952

PMID

26358275

Abstract

This study highlights the problem of levamisole-adulterated cocaine in context of active traffic participation. For the purposes of levamisole concentration monitoring in human serum, an analytical method based on LC-MS/MS and solid-phase extraction was applied. A Luna 5 μm C18 (2) 100 A, 150 mm × 2 mm column and a mobile phase consisting of A (H2 O/methanol = 95/5, v/v) and B (H2 O/methanol = 3/97, v/v), both with 10 mM ammonium acetate and with 0.1% acetic acid (pH = 3.2), were used. The validation experiments demonstrated that the method applied was appropriate for levamisole quantification in human serum. For 23% of levamisole-positive samples, the concentrations exceeded 20 ng/mL. Therefore, the interaction of this drug with cocaine has to be considered as important for active traffic participation. As a consequence, monitoring of levamisole concentration in human serum is recommended, as long as it is used as cocaine adulterant.

Language: en