Designer drugs probe
Date: 16.6.2007
A simple method for measuring drug concentrations in vivo could be used in medical and drug tests, claim Canadian chemists.
Janusz Pawliszyn and colleagues from the University of Waterloo, developed their method, based on a technique called solid phase microextraction (SPME), to offer fast sampling and more accurate sample analysis.
The chemists used bio-compatible SPME probes to measure diazepam levels in beagle bloodstreams - as a probe is placed in contact with the blood, it adsorbs a fraction of the diazepam, which can then be extracted and measured. 'The major contributions of our group were to develop the calibration procedure, which determines how the amount of compound found on the probe relates to the concentration in the sample, and to develop an automated analysis system that can handle large amounts of samples at a time,' said Pawliszyn.
"RSC Publishing":[ http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/cb/Volume/2007/7/designer_drugs_probe.asp]
