Rapid method for the simultaneous measurement of nicotine and cotinine in urine and serum by gas chromatography mass spectrometry

A simple, sensitive, and rapid gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric method is described for the simultaneous detection and quantitation of nicotine and its metabolite, cotinine, in urine and serum. The analytes and their respective deuterated internal standards were extracted by liquid-liquid extraction coupled to centrifugation and evaporation. The detection limit of the assay was 0.16 ng/ml for both nicotine and cotinine. The limit of quantitation for each analyte was 1.25 ng/ml. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.