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Development of the “selective concentration” analytical method for drug-containing hair regions based on micro-segmental analysis to identify a trace amount of drug in hair: hair analysis following single-dose ingestion of midazolam

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Abstract

Purpose

Hair can be the only available specimen to prove drug-facilitated crimes (DFCs). However, it is difficult to identify drugs abused in DFCs, particularly benzodiazepines ingested in a single dose, using the conventional segmental hair analysis. In this study, an analytical procedure to identify a trace amount of drug in hair based on micro-segmental analysis was developed.

Methods

Hair was donated from a subject who had been administered midazolam in a single dose. First, tens of hair strands were analyzed according to our routine procedure. Drug screening and identification were performed using a quadrupole-Orbitrap liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) instrument. Next, two hair strands were segmented at 0.4-mm intervals and multi-target selected reaction monitoring of each segment (micro-segmental analysis) was performed using a tandem quadrupole LC–MS/MS instrument. After distribution curves of midazolam-derived ions in each hair strand were constructed, the residual extracts from segments corresponding to drug-containing regions were collected selectively into one tube. The extract was concentrated using solid-phase extraction and then injected into the LC–MS/MS instrument for drug identification.

Results

We failed to identify drugs using our routine procedure, although a slight peak, predicted to arise from midazolam, was detected, while the peak detected in the concentrated extract from drug-containing hair regions (named “selective concentration”) was identified as midazolam.

Conclusions

The “selective concentration” enabled the identification of a trace amount of drug using several hair strands. The method would be helpful in proving DFCs even after it was impossible to identify drugs using conventional segmental hair analysis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant number 19K10700.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Institute of Police Science, 6-3-1 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-0882, Japan

    Kenji Kuwayama, Hajime Miyaguchi, Tatsuyuki Kanamori, Kenji Tsujikawa, Tadashi Yamamuro, Hiroki Segawa, Yuki Okada & Yuko T. Iwata

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  1. Kenji Kuwayama
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  2. Hajime Miyaguchi
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  3. Tatsuyuki Kanamori
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  4. Kenji Tsujikawa
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  6. Hiroki Segawa
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  8. Yuko T. Iwata
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Correspondence to Kenji Kuwayama.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee at the National Research Institute of Police Science (Approval No. 2019005, Kashiwa, Japan) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Kuwayama, K., Miyaguchi, H., Kanamori, T. et al. Development of the “selective concentration” analytical method for drug-containing hair regions based on micro-segmental analysis to identify a trace amount of drug in hair: hair analysis following single-dose ingestion of midazolam. Forensic Toxicol 39, 156–166 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11419-020-00553-8

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