SIMPLE AND SENSITIVE DETECTION OF PHENCYCLIDINE IN BODY-FLUIDS BY GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH SURFACE-IONIZATION DETECTION

Phencyclidine (PCP) can be detected in body fluids with very high sens itivity by gas chromatography (GC) with surface ionization detection ( SID) using pethidine as internal standard. PCP was extracted with Sep- Pak C-18 cartridges from whole blood and urine samples, which gave cle an extracts. The calibration curve for spiked whole blood was linear i n the range 1.25-20 ng/ml. The detection limit of PCP was approximatel y 15 pg on-column (0.75 ng/ml sample), which was much lower than by GC -nitrogen phosphorus detection. The recovery of PCP and pethidine from spiked whole blood or urine samples was above 85%. This method seems very useful for the determination of PCP in forensic and clinical toxi cology.