-Validated at Orange County Crime Lab

Benzodiazepines and sedatives are some of the most commonly abused drugs in the nation and are often found in cases involving driving under the influence of drugs, sexual assaults and overdoses.

Unfortunately, most existing methods used to identify benzodiazepines and sedatives across matrices are labor intensive and time-consuming. A simple cleanup method that can be applied across multiple biological matrices would be an ideal solution to increase the throughput capabilities of forensic laboratories.

Unlike traditional methods for solid phase extraction, dispersive pipette extraction technology for clean-up focuses on removing matrix interferences, while keeping the benzodiazepines in the sample solution. XTR tips containing loose weak anion exchange (WAX) sorbent remove phospholipids and small non-amphoteric acids that can cause ion suppression. By simply aspirating and dispensing the sample solution with WAX XTR tips, matrix interferences are removed with minimal loss of the drug. This reduces the time required for extraction by minimizing several conditioning and washing steps, reducing the volume of solvent required for elution and eliminating analyst error from multiple transfer steps. The initial addition of acetonitrile to the sample solution keeps the benzodiazepines and sedative hypnotics from binding to the sorbent. (1)

We reported an LC-MS/MS analysis of benzodiazepines using dispersive pipette extraction technology for clean-up.  XTR tips with WAX sorbent can provide sample preparation across five matrices for a simple and fast INTip solution.