New Automated Screening System for the Determination of Basic Compounds in Urine by On-Line Extraction-HPLC- DAD

A new automated, qualitative screening HPLC method for the identification of basic compounds in urine has been established. A 1-ml volume of urine was automatedly extracted on-line and separated on two coupled strong cation-exchange columns under isocratic conditions. The use of the photodiode-array detector (DAD, λ=190-370 nm) gave access to a library of more than 2600 toxicologically relevant compounds. The validated method is reliable, simple and in addition it has been successfully proven in the analysis of real biological specimens for the routine use as an additional tool in systematic toxicological analysis and drugs of abuse confirmation analysis. 1