Urine Drug Testing

Versatile forensic analysis with urine

Urine testing has been as established as blood in forensic toxicology, with added versatility and easier sample collection. While blood is primarily analyzed for parent drug, urine provides both parent and metabolite. This allows a wider window of detection for urine, out to several weeks, or months, depending on the specific drug.

It is the most widely tested biological matrix, without the need of venipuncture or potential infection at the site of injection. However, one of the challenges with forensic testing of urine is preventing adulteration or sample tampering.

Forensic toxicology testing of urine includes a variety of sample preparation methods. Simple dilution procedures or extraction methods such as liquid-liquid (LLE) and solid phase (SPE) all have been useful for screening large panels of DoA.

Featured resources

Poster note

 Evaluation of a Method for Forensic Quantitative Screening of Over 120 Drugs of Abuse on a Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer

Useful information for method evaluation on an LC tandem MS (MS/MS) for screening a large panel of drugs of abuse, over 120 drugs in urine.

Publication

Simultaneous Determination of 40 Novel Psychoactive Stimulants in Urine by LC–HRMS and Library Matching

Marta Concheiro from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) uses HRAM Orbitrap MS to identify 40 new psychoactive drugs in urine.

Publication

Rapid Screening for Drugs of Abuse in Biological Fluids by UHPLC/Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry

Read how the FBI used UHPLC and Orbitrap MS as a successful alternative to immunoassay screening for drugs of abuse.

Additional resources

 Solid Phase Micro Extraction (SPME) with GC-MS

  • High sensitivity and robustness in GC-MS Solid Phase Micro Extraction

 Speed & Throughput for Opioid Analysis in Urine using SPE in LC-MS/MS

  • Increased speed and sample throughput of opioid analysis from human urine using micro-elution solid phase extraction

 Fully Automated Screening with Online Sample Preparation

  • A Fully Automated LC-MS Screening System using Automated Online Sample Preparation for Forensic Toxicology

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