Analysis of etomidate structural analogues in hair and urine
This paper aimed to identify etomidate and its structural analogues in hair and urine by HPLC-MS/MS.Hair samples were extracted by ultrasonic grinding and urine samples were extracted by methanol.The samples were on ACQUITY UPLC® HSS T3 column with 10 mmol/L ammonium acetate and 0.5 ‰ formic acid-methanol as mobile phases for gradient elution.Multiple reaction monitoring mode was used for analysis.The separation and detection of structural analogues were realized,especially the isomers propoxate and isopropoxate.There was good linear relationship of the etomidate and its structural analogues in hair and urine,with R greater than 0.998.And the recovery,accuracy and precision all met the requirements.When applied to practical cases,etomidate,metomidate,isopropoxate and etomidate acid were detected simultaneously in the hair samples of 3 cases.And correspondingly,in the urine samples,high content of etomidate acid and low content of the precursor substance metomidate were detected in 2 cases,only etomidate acid was detected in 1case.Etomidate structural analogues have higher content of precursor substances and lower content of metabolite in hair samples,while the opposite was true in urine samples.We cannot reverse confirm the structure of the precursor substances through the detection of the common metabolite etomidate acid in the urine samples.Therefore,ingestion of etomidate structural analogues cannot be accurately assessed from urine samples alone.