ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Published Online: 1 July 1981
Page Count: 6

Detection of Phencyclidine in Hair
Baumgartner, AM
Research associate and head, Ivan A. Getting Laboratories, The Aerospace Corporation, Calif.

Black, CT
Head, Clinical Chemistry, Veterans Administration Wadsworth Medical Center, Calif.

Jones, PF
Research associate and head, Ivan A. Getting Laboratories, The Aerospace Corporation, Calif.

(Received 23 August 1980; accepted 5 November 1980)

Abstract

Phencyclidine (PCP) can be detected in human hair with commercially available radioimmunoassay reagents. Hair samples of all subjects admitting PCP use were positive, while thin-layer chromatographic urine analyses were positive in only one of seven cases. Presumably the drug is incorporated into the hair during periods of drug use and then retained in that particular section of the hair for its lifetime. Earlier results in this laboratory in a more detailed study of opiate retention in hair indicated not only that nanogram levels of the drug could be measured in a single strand of hair, but also that sectional analysis of the strand could indicate the time of drug use. The PCP results again suggest that the hair sample could serve as a valuable tool in the determination of drug abuse histories. The sample accessibility and stability and the long-term retention of the drugs in hair exemplify the potential advantages of the hair sample over the body fluid sample.

Keywords:
pathology and biology, phencyclidine, hair

Paper ID: JFS11402J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS11402J
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