EVALUATION OF A METHOD FOR SIMULTANEOUS QUANTIFICATION OF CODEINE, DIHYDROCODEINE, MORPHINE, AND 6-MONOACETYLMORPHINE IN SERUM, BLOOD, AND POSTMORTEM BLOOD

A solid-phase extraction and gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric me thod for the simultaneous determination of codeine, dihydrocodeine, mo rphine, and 6-monoacetylmorphine in serum, blood or postmortem blood i s described. The extraction technique allows the determination of free or total morphine (morphine plus morphine glucuronide). Experiments w ith spiked blood samples resulted in recoveries of 96.4% +/- 4.2% for codeine, 95.8% +/- 5.1% for dihydrocodeine, 90.3% +/- 7.8% for 6-monoa cetylmorphine and 92.5% +/- 8.1% for morphine. Excellent linearity was obtained over the range 1-1500 ng/mL. The detection limit for all ana lytes is less than 1 ng/mL.