Paradoxical results in urine drug testing for 6-acetylmorphine and total opiates: implications for best analytical strategy

Journal of Analytical Toxicology
Olof Beck, Michael Böttcher

Abstract

A major task in urine drug testing is to detect heroin intake. The most common way of doing this is by using morphine as the analytical target in opiate immunoassay screening. However, this strategy sometimes leads to false-positive results because morphine is not a metabolite unique to heroin. The objective of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of the unique heroin metabolite 6-acetylmorphine (6-AM) as the primary analytical target in combination with morphine in the screening assay. A total number of 3521 randomly collected urine samples from 707 patients undergoing heroin substitution treatment were investigated for 6-AM and opiates by CEDIA (cloned enzyme donor immunoassay) and for opiates by DRI immunoassays and by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (free 6-AM, free morphine, total morphine, and total codeine). The rate of positive outcome in the screening for 6-AM was 9.1% (cutoff 10 microg/L), and for opiates, it was 22.6% (cutoff 300 microg/L), which is in accordance with a known shorter detection time for 6-AM following heroin intake. However, by comparing 6-AM and opiate screening results at different cutoff levels, it was observed that 7-8% of the samples and 12.5% of the patients with detectable 6-AM had an...Continue Reading

Citations

Sep 14, 2014·Journal of Analytical Toxicology·Gregory SarrisRichard Stripp
May 27, 2014·Forensic Science International : Synergy·Julie KnightEdward J Cone
Oct 24, 2007·Peptides·Richard J Bodnar
May 24, 2015·Forensic Science International : Synergy·Maria AnderssonOlof Beck
Apr 4, 2015·Journal of Analytical Toxicology·Jennifer M ColbyKara L Lynch
Sep 12, 2009·Therapeutic Drug Monitoring·Bridgit CrewsPatrick Friel
May 18, 2007·Analytical Chemistry·T A BrettellJ R Almirall

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