• J Anal Toxicol · Nov 2013

    Comparative Study

    Comparison of immunoassay screening tests and LC-MS-MS for urine detection of benzodiazepines and their metabolites: results of a national proficiency test.

    • Elisabetta Bertol, Fabio Vaiano, Maurizio Borsotti, Massimo Quercioli, and Francesco Mari.
    • 1Forensic Toxicology Division, Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
    • J Anal Toxicol. 2013 Nov 1; 37 (9): 659-64.

    AbstractFor most diverse purposes, different immunoassay (IA) screening methods are usually used to detect benzodiazepines and their metabolites in urine. In this study, we compared the main IAs used in forensic toxicology (Cloned Enzyme Donor Immunoassay, CEDIA®; Enzyme-Multiplied Immunoassay Technique, EMIT®; Fluorescent Polarization ImmunoAssay, FPIA®; Kinetic Interaction of Microparticles in Solution, KIMS® and Immunochromatographic Techniques, IMC) with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS). Twelve urine specimens were analyzed by 178 laboratories in Italy that participated in a National Proficiency Test, providing both qualitative and semi-quantitative results. Each IA was evaluated by the parameters: true positive, true negative, false positive (FP), false negative (FN), sensitivity (SENS), specificity (SPEC), positive predictive value, negative predictive value (NPV) and accuracy. SPEC was affected by a high FP rate for all IAs. The lowest SENS and NPV were provided by FPIA due to a high number of FN cases. Comparing IA semi-quantitative data with LC-MS-MS results, an overestimation of benzodiazepine amount is noted. This paper draws attention to the problem of the careless use of IA tests for forensic purposes as they may provide FP and/or FN results that can lead to errors of great severity.

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