Research and Development in Forensic Toxicology Development and Production of Reference Materials for Control and Calibration of Hair Drug Testing, Final Report

摘要

Hair testing for drugs of abuse needs matrix-matched control materials to help ensure the laboratorys process and authenticity of its results. This project developed and produced four reference materials of hair fortified with controlled substances for use as controls and/or calibrators. These reference materials can be used to identify and measure drugs of abuse in hair for forensic purposes. RTI Internationals1 (RTIs) Center for Forensic Sciences surveyed laboratories that perform hair analyses to determine which controlled substances would have the best utility, and these analytes were included in the reference materials. Head hair strands (1420 g) were washed with deionized water to remove potential surface contaminants. Fortification solutions were prepared with appropriate analytes, and the intact, whole head hair strands were completely submerged in the solution at room temperature for a period of time that was dependent on the analyte and the concentration of that analyte in the fortifying solution. Following successive isopropanol-phosphate buffer decontamination washes, the hair was homogenized and divided into 100-110 mg aliquots. RTI validated these materials through random sampling testing by multiple forensic laboratories using their validated testing procedures to obtain realistic reference ranges. Both gas and liquid chromatographies, coupled with mass spectral technologies, were used. At least two analytical techniques and two reference laboratories analyzed each reference material to provide representative reference values using numerous techniques. Uncertainty measurements (2-SQRT (Variance)) were determined for all reference materials to estimate the intra- and inter-laboratory variability for the analytical testing.