Use of high-performance liquid chromatography as an extraction procedure for analysis of triazolam in decomposed human muscle by gas chromatography mass spectrometry

A reliable and sensitive method for the determination of triazolam in human muscle using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is described. The drug was extracted from decomposed human muscle using three-step liquid-liquid extraction and HPLC which was performed isocratically on a conventional ODS column with a mobile phase of 0.01 M phosphate buffer (pH 6.5)-acetonitrile (7:3). Estazolam was used as an internal standard. GC-MS analysis was performed on a DB-5 capillary column. Excellent linearity was obtained over the concentration range 1-200 ng/g. The lower limit of detection was approximately 0.5 ng/g. Forensic application of the present method was also described. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.