Towards an automatic lab-on-valve-ion mobility spectrometric system for detection of cocaine abuse

- A LoV-BI-IMS miniaturized system has been developed for cocaine abuse.
- LOD of 0.3 and 0.14 μg L−1 for cocaine and ecgonine methyl ester were obtained.
- Saliva samples provided cocaine contents ranging from 1.3 to 97 μg L−1.
- Cocaine concentrations by LoV-BI-IMS were comparable with that of reference methods.

A lab-on-valve miniaturized system integrating on-line disposable micro-solid phase extraction has been interfaced with ion mobility spectrometry for the accurate and sensitive determination of cocaine and ecgonine methyl ester in oral fluids. The method is based on the automatic loading of 500 μL of oral fluid along with the retention of target analytes and matrix clean-up by mixed-mode cationic/reversed-phase solid phase beads, followed by elution with 100 μL of 2-propanol containing (3% v/v) ammonia, which are online injected into the IMS. The sorptive particles are automatically discarded after every individual assay inasmuch as the sorptive capacity of the sorbent material is proven to be dramatically deteriorated with reuse. The method provided a limit of detection of 0.3 and 0.14 μg L−1 for cocaine and ecgonine methyl ester, respectively, with relative standard deviation values from 8 till 14% with a total analysis time per sample of 7.5 min. Method trueness was evaluated by analyzing oral fluid samples spiked with cocaine at different concentration levels (1, 5 and 25 μg L−1) affording relative recoveries within the range of 85 ± 24%. Fifteen saliva samples were collected from volunteers and analysed following the proposed automatic procedure, showing a 40% cocaine occurrence with concentrations ranging from 1.3 to 97 μg L−1. Field saliva samples were also analysed by reference methods based on lateral flow immunoassay and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The application of this procedure to the control of oral fluids of cocaine consumers represents a step forward towards the development of a point-of-care cocaine abuse sensing system.