Fentanyl Overdose Analysis Executed on UCT SPE Column

There have been 256 fatal overdoses from illicit drugs in the first four months of this year in Canada, already more than half the 480 that occurred for all of 2015. Fentanyl’s connection to those deaths has been surging at a staggering rate. The British Columbia. Coroners Service reported recently that the presence of fentanyl in cases of illicit drug overdose deaths rose from a third in 2015 to nearly 50 percent so far this year. The authorities in this area of Canada believe few people in Vancouver have used pure heroin in more than a year and that many of those users don’t appear to be aware of it. Fentanyl is a basic drug with a pKa of 8.8, making it a prime candidate for strong cation exchange SPE on such sorbents as UCT’s flagship cartridge Clean Screen® DAU. Fentanyl, its metabolite (norfentanyl) and its newer analogs such as acetylfentanyl are also favored by this sorbent and corresponding methodology for high quality results.

This drug has been reported in the following peer reviewed article using UCT’s Clean Screen® DAU SPE cartridges:

1. Goldberger, B.A., et al., (2009)

   Clinical Applications of Mass Spectrometry: Methods in Molecular Biology 603: 245-252.

2. Wong, S.C., et al., (2008)

   Journal of Forensic Sciences, 53:495-498.

3. Stout, P.R., et al., (1998)

   Drug Metabolism and Distribution 26: 698-700.

4. Wang, W-L., et al., (1993)

   Forensic Science International, 61: 65-72.