Screening for amphetamine and amphetamine-type drugs in doping analysis by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry

A selective and sensitive method for the qualitative screening of urine samples for 27 amphetamine and amphetamine-type drugs in the field of doping analysis is described. The method consists of a liquid-liquid extraction with diethyl ether at pH 14 and analysis of the extracts with a LCQ-Deca mass spectrometer equipped with an atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation interface, operated in positive ionisation mode. The total run time was 15 min. All compounds were analysed in MS2 or MS3. The detection limit for all compounds was lower than 25 ng/mL except for chlorphentermine (detection limit: 250 ng/mL).