Determination of antidepressants and benzodiazepines in paired hair and nail samples

Hair and nails are keratinized matrices that can be used in Toxicology as for the long-term detection of substances. Whereas hair is an established matrix with decades use this field, have been less studied, especially including a comparison to samples. Specifically case antidepressant benzodiazepine drugs, very few publications analyzing these drugs nail samples exist yet. For reason, present study method 12 was developed. Samples were decontaminated 3 washes dichloromethane, 25 or 30 mg nails, respectively, pulverized. Then, incubated 1.5 mL water:ACN (50:50, v/v) horizontal agitation 90 min. The supernatant evaporated reconstituted 200 µL methanol 2 2% FA water, submitted solid phase extraction (SPE) using Oasis MCX cartridges analyzed by LC-MS/MS. satisfactorily validated following parameters: linearity, LOD (0.005–0.02 ng/mg), LOQ (0.01–0.02 selectivity, carryover, accuracy, imprecision, effect, efficiency, process efficiency autosampler stability. Matched fingernail, toenail obtained from 21 patients under treatment any studied developed method. most frequently detected venlafaxine (n = 11), trazodone 6), zolpidem 5), alprazolam 5) nordiazepam 5). Concentrations hair, fingernails toenails, 44.31 ng/mg, 8.05–43.35 ng/mg 7.02–22.69 venlafaxine; 5.40–19.08 0.13–1.00 0.42–1.04 trazodone; 13.86 5.19 9.11 fluoxetine; 7.42 1.85 0.03–2.81 sertraline; 0.40–1.42 0.12 0.16 zolpidem; 0.02–0.11 0.07–1.07 0.05 active treatment. concentrations higher than treatment, exception diazepam 1; 0.41 fingernails). Fingernail lower compared cases. Comparison toenails patient antifungal did not show observable effect concentrations.