ABSTRACT
This article reviews the analysis of 48 drugs and drug metabolites in human hair by different analytical methods which are described in the current literature. Washing steps to exclude external contamination, extraction, derivatization, stationary phases, detection modes (DETMODEs) and detection limits of nonchromatographic and chromatographic procedures are presented in ten tables. Besides immunoassays (IA), which are used in most cases for screening purposes, the most important detection method after chromatographic separation of the components is mass spectrometry (MS) because of its sensitivity and specificity. However, new extraction techniques like supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), separation procedures like capillary electrophoreses, and DETMODEs like infrared microscopy are advancing. Additionally methods for gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric (GC/MS) screening procedures are presented.
