DIRECT ANALYSIS OF METHAMPHETAMINE AND AMPHETAMINE ENANTIOMERS IN HUMAN URINE BY SEMI-MICROCOLUMN HPLC ELECTROSPRAY-IONIZATION MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Semi-microcolumn high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a column-switching system was connected to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) for the analysis of methamphetamine (MA) and amp hetamine (AP), a main metabolite of MA. Urine samples were directly in troduced to the system. After removal of other components of the sampl e matrix by the column-switching process, both MA and AP were successf ully analyzed with enantiomeric resolution by the use of p-cyclodextri n phenylcarbamate-bonded (phCD) semi-microcolumn, accompanied by spect ral information obtained with ESI-MS. Linear calibration curves were o btained for all the analytes throughout the concentration range from 1 ng/ml to 5 mu g/ml. The relative standard deviation for peak area ran ged from 1.41 to 2.07% at 0.1 mu g/ml for the four enantiomer peaks. D etection limits observed for MA and AP enantiomers were 20 ng/ml and 5 0 ng/ml in the spectrum scanning mode, and 0.5 ng/ml and 1 ng/ml in th e single ion monitoring (SIM) mode, respectively. The HPLC/ESI-MS syst em studied here appeared highly sensitive and useful towards its foren sic applications.