United States Department of Transportation
i
The Analysis of Benzodiazepines in Forensic Urine Samples
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1996-04-01
[PDF-1.01 MB]
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Abstract:The FAA Toxicology and Accident Research Laboratory reports the presence of any drug detected at therapeutic or subtherapeutic levels and the medical condition for which the drug may have been used. Specimens from the pilot of a fatal aviation accident in 1992 were suspected of containing fluoxetine and clonazepam. Initial screening tests using fluorescence polarization immunoassay of a urine specimen revealed 86 ng/ml of a benzodiazepine. Blood from this case was screened using radioimmunoassay and a benzodiazepine was detected at a level in excess of 200 ng/ml. No benzodiazepine was detected in the urine specimen when it was initially tested using HPLC with no hydrolysis of the specimen. Temazepam was eventually identified in urine by HPLC and Mass Spectroscopy, after enzyme hydrolysis of the urine using - glucuronidase. The blood was found to contain 44 ng/ml of temazepam, 83 ng/ml of fluoxetine, and 138 ng/ml of norfluoxetine. The liver was found to contain 145 ng/ml of temazepam. No tests were performed on the liver for fluoxetine. The identification of temazepam in urine would have been impossible without the enzyme hydrolysis of the specimen prior to extraction and identification. Benzodiazepines are among the most prescribed drugs and a procedure is needed to assure that these drugs will be detected and identified in urine.
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