Detection of the plasma volume expander hydroxyethyl starch in human urine

The plasma volume expander hydroxyethyl starch (HES) is usually administere d in cases of hypovolaemic shocks but in 1998 the press reported its misuse in endurance sports. Since January 2000, it has been put on the list of pr ohibited substances of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its mi suse is to ban by doping controls. Therefore, a rapid method enabling the s creening for HES in human urine was developed which can be easily adopted b y IOC laboratories to analyse routine urine samples for this remedy. Excret ion study urine samples obtained from patients treated with HES, blank urin e specimen and reference standards, were hydrolysed with hydrochloric acid and without any further purification of the resulting monosaccharides their per-timethylsilylated derivatives were performed. By means of gas chromato graphy-mass spectrometry the products were separated and the alpha- and bet a-isomers of glucose, 2-, 3- and 6-hydroxyethyl glucose derivatives were id entified. Typical ion traces of 2- and 3-substituted glucose (m/z 248, m/z 261 and m/z 235, m/z 248, respectively) support the fast determination of t he substances whose electron impact mass spectra are presented and discusse d. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.