Extraction of amphetamine and methamphetamine from urine specimens with Cerex Polycrom Clin II solid-phase extraction columns and the Speedisk 48 Pressure Processor

Extraction of amphetamine and methamphetamine in urine was investigated using Cerex Polycrom Clin II solid-phase extraction columns and the Speedisk 48 Pressure Processor as a replacement for our liquid-liquid procedure. Linearity for urine standards extracted with the Cerex-Speedisk method ranged from 50 ng/mL for methamphetamine and from 150 ng/mL for amphetamine to 10,000 ng/mL for both. The mean recovery at the 500-ng/mL cutoff for three different lots of columns was 96.4% for AMP and 95.7% for MET. The mean of the within-run means for three batches was 495.4 ng/mL with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 1.2% or less for amphetamine and 496.4 ng/mL for methamphetamine with a CV of 1.7% or less. Thirty-six specimens containing amphetamine and the same number for methamphetamine were analyzed by both the Cerex-Speedisk and liquid-liquid methods. The correlation for specimens containing amphetamine gave an r2 of 0.9986 with a slope of 0.99; for methamphetamine, the r2 was 0.9997 with a slope of 0.98. The Cerex-Speedisk method cut extraction time in half, was less costly, and greatly reduced the volume of hazardous waste.