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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

High-throughput and Comprehensive Drug Surveillance Using Multisegment Injection-Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry
Published on: April 23, 2019
Quantitation of phencyclidine (PCP) in urine and blood using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)
Angela M Ferguson1, Uttam Garg
1Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, Kansas City, MO, USA.
Abstract:
Phencyclidine (PCP) is a cycloalkylamine and is classified as a dissociative anesthetic. In the 1950s, PCP was tested as an intravenous anesthetic but due to its severe side effects, it was withdrawn from the clinical use. Since then PCP has become an illegal street drug making its laboratory analysis forensically essential. PCP can be detected in urine, serum, or plasma by immunoassays and quantified by gas or liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. In the method described here, a deuterated internal standard is added to the sample and the drug is extracted under alkaline conditions. Analysis is conducted using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Quantitation of PCP is done by comparing the responses of unknown samples to the standards using selected ion monitoring.
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