Intérêt et applications en toxicologie analytique du couplage UPLC-Spectrométrie de masse haute résolution avec extraction en ligne des échantillons

Intoxications involving drugs, licit or not, either voluntary or not, are frequent causes of admission in emergency and intensive care units. Diagnosis is generally performed through the case story, toge-ther with clinical signs, biological and toxicological analysis. A toxicological screening is usually the first step in such cases, and should uncover every com-pound that has a toxicological meaning. Since several years, chromatography and mass spectrometry are the gold standards for toxicological screening, and their evolution has led to the development of faster, more sensitive, and robust techniques. High resolution mass spectrometers (time-of-flight or TOF ; Orbitrap) are powerful tools bringing more possibilities in the field, and more particularly hybrid analyzers (Q-TOF, Q-Orbitrap) that can acquire fragmentation mass spectra. Highly sensitive and precise non-targeted screenings can be recorded with an UPLC-Q-TOF in “full scan” mode, by measuring exact mass of xenobiotics. In MSE mode, it is possible to look for metabolites or new synthetic drugs in anterior data without standard reference material. Finally, sample processing is shortened and robustness of screenings is improved by coupling on-line extraction to an UPLC-Q-TOF.