Paper spray screening and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry confirmation for medication adherence testing: A...

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Forensic Science
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Paper spray offers rapid, sample-preparation-free screening but suffers from incomplete extraction.
• Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) provides robust, sensitive, and selective analysis.
• Combining these techniques can leverage the speed of paper spray with the accuracy of LC/MS.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a two-step analytical workflow integrating paper spray and LC/MS.
• To enable rapid screening of numerous samples and confirmation of results.
• To assess the feasibility of using this method for medication adherence testing via fingerprints.

Main Methods:

• Samples were initially analyzed using paper spray for rapid screening.
• Subsequent analysis of the same samples was performed using LC/MS (Q Exactive™ Plus Orbitrap™).
• The workflow was applied to fingerprints from patients on quetiapine and to drugs of abuse samples.

Main Results:

• Paper spray extraction efficiency for drugs of abuse ranged from 15-35%, with inter-replicate variability under 30% for short acquisition times.
• The two-step method successfully resolved negative screening results from paper spray using LC/MS.
• Detection of the antipsychotic quetiapine was achieved from patient fingerprints.

Conclusions:

• This study demonstrates the first sequential analysis of a single sample using paper spray followed by LC/MS.
• The developed workflow enables sensitive detection of drugs, including antipsychotics, from fingerprints.
• This method is advantageous for analyzing limited samples and can be applied to various sample types compatible with paper spray.