Published: Journal of Analytical Toxicology, ISSN 0146-4760, Volume 27, Number 7, October 2003, pp. 471-478

Performance Characteristics of Selected Immunoassays for Preliminary Test of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, Methamphetamine, and Related Drugs in Urine Specimens
Jui Hsu[1], Chiareiy Liu[1], C.P. Hsu[1], Wen-Ing Tsay[1], Jih-Heng Li[1], Dong-Liang Lin[2], and Ray H. Liu[1][,2],[3]
[1]National Bureau of Controlled Drugs, Department of Health, Taipei, Taiwan;
[2]Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, Taipei, Taiwan; and
[3]Department of Justice Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama

Eight commercially available immunoassays for amphetamines (DRI® Amphetamines, CEDIA® DAU Amphetamines-Semiquantitative, EMIT® d.a.u. Monoclonal Amphetamine/Methamphetamine, Synchron CX® Systems AMPH, TDx®/TDxFLx® Amphetamine/Methamphetamine II, CEDIA Amphetamines/Ecstasy, COBAS® INTEGRA Amphetamines, and Abuscreen® OnLine HS Amphetamine/MDMA) are evaluated for their effectiveness in serving as the preliminary test methodology for the analysis of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine/ 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDMA/MDA) and methamphetamine/amphetamine (MA/AM). Standard solutions (in urine matrix) of MDMA, MDA, MA, and AM are used to determine these immunoassays’ reactivities (or cross-reactivities) toward these compounds of interest. Case specimens containing MDMA/MDA and MA/AM are also used to study the correlations of the apparent immunoassay MDMA (or MA) concentrations and the gas chromatographic–mass spectrometric concentrations of these compounds. Data resulting from this study suggest that CEDIA Amphetamines/Ecstasy can best predict the concentrations of MDMA and MA in case specimens and can also detect the presence of MDMA at low levels, whereas Abuscreen OnLine HS Amphetamine/MDMA can detect both MDMA and MA at low concentrations.

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