Direct analysis of anabolic steroids in urine using Leidenfrost phenomenon assisted thermal desorption-dielectric barrier discharge ionization mass spectrometry

Rapid detection of trace level anabolic steroids in urine is highly desirable to monitor the consumption of performance enhancing anabolic steroids by athletes. The present article describes a novel strategy for identifying the trace anabolic steroids in urine using Leidenfrost phenomenon assisted thermal desorption (LPTD) coupled to dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) ionization mass spectrometry. Using this method the steroid molecules are enriched within a liquid droplet during the thermal desorption process and desorbed all-together at the last moment of droplet evaporation in a short time domain. The desorbed molecules were ionized using a dielectric barrier discharge ion-source in front of the mass spectrometer inlet at open atmosphere. This process facilitates the sensitivity enhancement with several orders of magnitude compared to the thermal desorption at a lower temperature. The limits of detection (LODs) of various steroid molecules were found to be in the range of 0.05–0.1 ng mL⁻¹ for standard solutions and around two orders of magnitude higher for synthetic urine samples. The detection limits of urinary anabolic steroids could be lowered by using a simple and rapid dichloromethane extraction technique. The analytical figures of merit of this technique were evaluated at open atmosphere using suitable internal standards. The technique is simple and rapid for high sensitivity and high throughput screening of anabolic steroids in urine.