Journal of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis
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J Pharm Biomed Anal · Apr 2017
Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) for determination of GHB, precursors and metabolites in different specimens: Application to clinical and forensic cases.
Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) acts as a precursor and metabolite of the inhibitory central nervous system (CNS) neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Sodium salt of GHB has been used as a medication for narcolepsy and alcohol withdrawal. Moreover, GHB and its precursor gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), are illegal recreational drugs of abuse. ⋯ Recovery of analytes under investigation was always higher than 75% and intra-assay and inter-assay precision and accuracy were always better than 15%. The validated method was then successfully applied to real specimens from either forensic (one post-mortem urine sample taken from a GHB fatal intoxication case) or clinical cases (cerebrospinal fluid, plasma and hair samples collected from narcoleptic patients under sodium oxybate treatment). Finally, illicit preparations, seized by police forces were also checked for GHB amount and eventual presence of prodrug GBL.