Fully automated forensic screening of dried bloodspots with MRM Spectrum Mode

An increasing amount of prescription and illicit drugs drive clinical laboratories to more cost effective and faster screening methods in workplace drug testing, roadside testing, rehabilitation programs or post-mortem investigations without compromising established false positive or negative detection rates. Therefore, the increasing sample amount with a large panel of analytes needs to be handled in shorter analysis time and with simple sample preparation steps.
In this study we present a fully automated dried bloodspot (DBS) extraction procedure coupled to an LC-MS/MS-system for forensic and toxicology screening of drugs and their metabolites. We use a new approach, the MRM Spectrum Mode, by measuring at least 5 MRM-transitions of each compound to generate a high confidence for the identification of the results.