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Published:
Journal of Analytical Toxicology,
ISSN 0146-4760,
Volume 25, Number 5, July/August, pp. 328-332
Improved Procedure for the Analysis of Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate
and Ethylene Glycol in Whole Blood
Y. Mary
Pan, Greta N. Gill, Christopher S. Tilson, William H. Wall, and H. Horton McCurdy
Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Division of Forensic Sciences, P.O.
Box 370808, Decatur, Georgia 30037-0808
The modification
of a procedure originally developed for the analysis of ethylene glycol (EG)
in serum was also found to permit the simultaneous analysis of gamma-hydroxybutyrate
(GHB) in whole blood. The primary feature of the EG procedure was that it employed
a water scavenger, 2,2-dimethoxypropane, which reacted with water to produce
volatile methanol. Water scavenging is a technique that could be adapted for
the analysis of drugs such as GHB as their respective di-t-butyldimethylsilyl
derivatives. A close structural analogue of GHB, 2-hydroxy-3-methylbutyric acid,
was successfully employed as the internal standard for both EG and GHB. The
advantages of the modified procedure are that it is very quick and easy to perform
and produces remarkably clean extracts for GHB, especially when compared to
other liquid–liquid techniques. We have successfully applied this technique
for the analysis of GHB and EG in several postmortem and driving-under-the-influence
cases. There is an apparently wide variability between levels of GHB that can
be associated with impairment versus those levels that can be associated with
death.The modification of a procedure originally developed for the analysis
of ethylene glycol (EG) in serum was also found to permit the simultaneous analysis
of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) in whole blood. The primary feature of the EG
procedure was that it employed a water scavenger, 2,2-dimethoxypropane, which
reacted with water to produce volatile methanol. Water scavenging is a technique
that could be adapted for the analysis of drugs such as GHB as their respective
di-t-butyldimethylsilyl derivatives. A close structural analogue of GHB, 2-hydroxy-3-methylbutyric
acid, was successfully employed as the internal standard for both EG and GHB.
The advantages of the modified procedure are that it is very quick and easy
to perform and produces remarkably clean extracts for GHB, especially when compared
to other liquid–liquid techniques. We have successfully applied this technique
for the analysis of GHB and EG in several postmortem and driving-under-the-influence
cases. There is an apparently wide variability between levels of GHB that can
be associated with impairment versus those levels that can be associated with
death.
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