The development of a broad-spectrum toxicology screening program in Taiwan

Our institute serves as a centralized clinical laboratory for municipal and private hospitals in Taipei, a major international metropolis in the Asian region. Two key considerations leading to the development of our toxicology program are: a large number of foreign visitors and local residents returning from overseas trips may bring in chemicals which are less commonly seen in this region; and the lack of readily available assays for a large percentage of commonly used medicines, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Our toxicology screening program addresses the needs of both the Emergency Department Drug Screening and Drug of Abuse Screening. In Emergency Department Drug Screening, REMEDi HS is used as the general screening method. In Drug of Abuse Screening, the TDx is used for the initial screening of amphetamine-like substances and opiates, followed by REMEDi HS for the confirmation of positive samples. Emergency Department data collected at our institute over one year (September 1992 to August 1993) identified 57 different drugs in 713 samples. Opiates, narcotics and central stimulants accounted for 24% of the encountered drugs. Presently, there is no extensive reporting of misuse of benzodiazepines in this region. The detection of herbal ingredients like ephedrine and methylephedrine (from the Ma-Huang plant) in patient samples illustrates a large area often overlooked by western toxicology.