IDENTIFICATION OF COCAINE ANALYTES IN FINGERNAIL AND TOENAIL SPECIMENS

Fingernail and toenail specimens were obtained from 18 suspected cocai ne users. The nails were cut. heated under methanolic reflux, and the methanolic extracts were purified by solid-phase extraction. Gas chrom atography/mass spectrometry was utilized for the qualitative and quant itative analysis of nine cocaine analytes. Comparison of conventional postmortem analysis of blood and urine with nail analysis revealed a m arked increase in the detection of cocaine use by nail analysis. Cocai ne analytes were present in 14 (82.3%) subjects utilizing nail analysi s. Out of those 14 subjects, only 5 (27.7%) were positive by conventio nal postmortem drug analysis. Cocaine and benzoylecgonine were the pre dominant analytes In all positive nail specimens. Anhydroecgonine meth yl eater, ecgonine methyl ester, ecgonine ethyl ester, cocaethylene, n orcocaine, and norbenzoylecgonine were detected in a limited number of specimens. The ratio of cocaine to benzoylecgonine ranged from 2-10:1 . These findings suggest that nails may be a useful alternative matrix for the detection of cocaine exposure.