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Author Spotlight: An Efficient Methodology to Confidently Differentiate and Characterize Fentanyl Analogs
Published on: November 8, 2024
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Detecting fentanyl using point-of-care drug checking technologies: A validation study.
Lianping Ti1, Samuel Tobias2, Mark Lysyshyn3
1British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, 400-1045 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2A9, Canada; Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, 2775 Laurel Street, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 1M9, Canada.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence
|May 22, 2020
Summary
Point-of-care drug checking services using immunoassay strips and FTIR spectroscopy show varying accuracy for fentanyl detection. Combining these methods may improve reliability in public health interventions.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Analytical Chemistry
- Forensic Science
Background:
- Point-of-care drug checking services are crucial public health interventions for the fentanyl crisis.
- Rigorous evaluations comparing these technologies to laboratory standards are lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the accuracy of fentanyl immunoassay strips and Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy.
- To compare these point-of-care technologies against laboratory reference standards.
Main Methods:
- Two point-of-care technologies (immunoassay strips, FTIR spectroscopy) were used at supervised injection sites.
- Sensitivity, specificity, and false negative rates were calculated against laboratory reference standards for 331 samples.
Main Results:
- Fentanyl immunoassay strips demonstrated 87.5% sensitivity and 95.2% specificity (12.5% false negative rate).
- FTIR spectroscopy showed 72.1% sensitivity and 99.0% specificity (27.9% false negative rate).
- FTIR spectroscopy has a detection limit, while immunoassay strips have a higher false negative rate.
Conclusions:
- Neither immunoassay strips nor FTIR spectroscopy alone perfectly detect fentanyl at the point-of-care.
- Combining FTIR spectroscopy and immunoassay strips offers potential to mitigate individual technology limitations.
