Development and validation of a fast and simple multi‐analyte procedure for quantification of 40 drugs relevant to emergency toxicology using GC‐MS and one‐point calibration

Diagnosis and prognosis of poisonings should be confirmed by comprehensive screening and reliable quantification of xenobiotics, for example by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC‐MS) or liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry (LC‐MS). The turnaround time should be short enough to have an impact on clinical decisions. In emergency toxicology, quantification using full‐scan acquisition is preferable because this allows screening and quantification of expected and unexpected drugs in one run. Therefore, a multi‐analyte full‐scan GC‐MS approach was developed and validated with liquid‐liquid extraction and one‐point calibration for quantification of 40 drugs relevant to emergency toxicology. Validation showed that 36 drugs could be determined quickly, accurately, and reliably in the range of upper therapeutic to toxic concentrations. Daily one‐point calibration with calibrators stored for up to four weeks reduced workload and turn‐around time to less than 1 h. In summary, the multi‐analyte approach with simple liquid‐liquid extraction, GC‐MS identification, and quantification over fast one‐point calibration could successfully be applied to proficiency tests and real case samples. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.