Application of the multiple drugs immunoassay test for rapid detection of drug abuse in postmortem urine

Abstract

Objective: The ADVANCED QUALITY™ One Step Multi-Drug Screen test is a new urine on-site immunoassay test that is designed to detect multiple drugs of abuse in one time (barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methamphetamine, and opiates group). Thus, the present research was done to evaluate the diagnostic performance of this test. Material and Method: Urine samples obtained from corpses subjected to medicolegal autopsy at the forensic unit in Ramathibodi Hospital between October 2007 and March 2009 were used for the present study. The diagnostic performance of this immunoassay test was determined by using the results of the rapid emergency drug identification high sensitivity (REMEDi™ HS) system as the gold standard. Results: Two hundred forty six urine samples were used in the present study. The sensitivity with their 95% confidence interval of cocaine, opiates, methamphetamine, and benzodiazepines assay was 100% (100-100%) each. The specificity with their 95% confidence interval of these was 100% (100-100%), 98% (96.75-99.94%), 95% (91.70-97.38%), and 93% (89.89-96.24%), respectively. The MDMA and barbiturates were not evaluated because there was no true positive result. Conclusion: The ADVANCED QUALITY™ One Step Multi-Drug Screen test is reliable for drugs of abuse screening in postmortem urine.