Detection of "bath salt" synthetic cathinones and metabolites in urine via DART-MS and solid phase microextraction

A rapid and sensitive method, direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) was applied to the characterization and semiquantitative analysis of synthetic cathinones and their metabolites in urine. DART-MS was capable of detecting three different cathinones and three metabolites down to sub-clinical levels directly without any sample preparations. The process produced a spectrum within seconds because no extraction or derivatization was required for analysis and the high mass accuracy of the instrumentation allowed analysis without the need for lengthy chromatographic separations. The use of solid phase microextration demonstrated a relative increase in the detectability of both drugs and metabolites, improving the detection signal on average more than an order of magnitude over direct detection, while providing cleaner spectra devoid of the major peaks associated with urine that oftentimes dominate such samples.