Abstract

Context: Epilepsy, also known as “The Falling Sickness”, is a neurological disorder that occurs due to nerve cell disruption which results in improper signal transferring leading to seizures. Occurrence of abuse of Anti-convulsant drugs (ACDs) is increasing day-by-day, so the need for detection of these drugs due to their involvement in forensic cases. Aims: In this research paper, Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction (DLLME) has been used for extraction of 4 ACDs-Lamotrigine (LMG), Oxcarbazepine (OXC), Valproic Acid (VA) and Topiramate (TPM). Settings and Design: Ultrahigh Performance Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) was employed to analyze data utilizing multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) from biological matrix encountered in forensic and clinical scenarios. Methods and Material: DLLME extraction method has been employed for isolation of 4 ACDs- LMG, OXC, VA & TPM from urine sample. Further quantification and analysis of drugs was employed by LC-MS/MS method. Statistical analysis used: MS-Excel and GraphPad Prism softwares are used to calculate the linearity between the response and 6 different concentrations of standards taken for each drug. Results: Linearity was obtained in the range of 5 – 200 µg/L for the targeted drugs. LOD and LOQ for the analytes were in the range of 7.5844 µg/ml to 12.1447 µg/ml and 22.9831 µg/ ml to 36.8022 µg/ml. This method resulted in the highest recovery of 73 to 119 % for targeted drugs as compared to other published methods. The complete process followed ICH guidelines for optimization and validation of method. Conclusions: A novel, sensitive and effective extraction method has been developed for concurrent extraction of 4 ACDs- LMG, OXC, VA & TPM from saliva sample. Values of LOD and LOQ obtained were lowest as compared to existing methods.

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