SIMPLE AND RAPID ASSAY METHOD FOR SIMULTANEOUS QUANTIFICATION OF URINARY NICOTINE AND COTININE USING MICRO-EXTRACTION BY PACKED SORBENT AND GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY-MASS SPECTROMETRY

A simple and rapid method for determination of nicotine and cotinine levels in urine was developed using samples prepared by micro-extraction by packed sorbent (MEPS) and subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. This method provided good reproducibility, as well as good linearity of calibration curves in the range of 1–100 and 50–1000 ng/mL for quality control samples spiked with nicotine and cotinine, respectively. The detection limit of nicotine and cotinine was as low as 0.25 and 20 ng/mL, respectively. An evaporation procedure is not suitable for nicotine determination, thus an advantage of the present MEPS assay method is direct testing with GC-MS without the need for evaporation to a dry solvent. Our findings show that it may be useful for determining nicotine levels in various types of research studies.