Assays for Benzodiazepines

trova@unifi(opens in a new window)|View at Publisher| Export | Download | Add to List | More... Neuropathology of Drug Addictions and Substance Misuse Volume 3, 13 May 2016, Pages 359-369 Assays for Benzodiazepines (Book Chapter) Bertol, E., Vaiano, F. Department of Health Sciences, Division of Forensic Toxicology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy View references (65) Abstract In the last few years, benzodiazepine misuse has been an important issue, in both clinical and forensic toxicology, for the great variability of available compounds, their metabolic patterns, and low concentrations in biological specimens. Thus, many analytical methods have been developed by means of various techniques and approaches. This chapter aims to present the current state of the art in benzodiazepine detection by reviewing several studies published since 2009. The features of the most analyzed biological specimens (blood, urine, hair, and oral fluid) have been described, even focusing on their pretreatment (protein precipitation, hydrolysis, and incubation). The extraction procedures (liquid-liquid, solid-phase, or microextraction) have been widely illustrated and their advantages and disadvantages have been also discussed. Moreover, special attention has been applied to the different instrumentations adopted for benzodiazepine detection, from immunoassays to the chromatographic tandem mass systems.