Maternal hair testing for the assessment of fetal exposure to drug of abuse during early pregnancy: Comparison with testing in placental and fetal remains.

UNLABELLED: Drug use by pregnant women in the first trimester of pregnancy and subsequent fetal exposure during early gestation can be assessed only by repetitive/systematic maternal blood/urine analysis or segmental hair analysis. No evidence of any relationship between maternal/fetal exposure during this specific period of gestation has been demonstrated to date in a human model. METHODS: To clarify drugs toxicokinetics and transplacental passage during early pregnancy, the presence of the most widely used recreational drugs of abuse and metabolites was investigated in the proximal 4cm hair segments of women undergoing voluntary termination of pregnancy (n=280) during the 12th week of gestation and the results were compared to those from placenta and fetal tissue samples in order to verify whether maternal hair testing can reflect fetal exposure and, if so, to what extent. Hair, placenta and fetal remains were analyzed by validated gas chromatography mass spectrometry assays. RESULTS: Eighty one positive hair samples were identified: 60 were positive for cannabis (74.1%), 28 for cocaine (34.6%), 7 for opiates (8.6%), 3 for MDMA (3.7%) and 18.5% were positive for more than one drug. The positive hair test results were confirmed in placenta/fetal tissues in 10 cases out of 60 for cannabis (16. 7%); in 7 out of 28 for cocaine (25%); and none for the 6 opiates positive cases and 3 MDMA cases, respectively. CONCLUSION: Drugs/metabolites in hair of pregnant women can be used as biomarkers of past drug use (repetitive or sporadic), although the use is not always reflected in fetal/placental tissues. There are several possible hypotheses to explain the results: (1) the use occurred before the start of pregnancy, (2) past sporadic consumption which could be measured in hair but not in fetal and placental remains because of the narrow window of drug detection in placental/fetal tissues; (3) the sensitivity of the analytical methods was not high enough for the detection of the minute amount of drugs of abuse and metabolites which reached these tissues (4) there is a large variability in the transplacental passage of drugs of abuse and in the placenta's metabolizing capacity.

Assessment of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in young adolescents following implementation of smoke-free policy in Italy.

We investigated acute and chronic exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in a cohort of young adolescents using urinary cotinine and hair nicotine testing after recent implementation of Italian smoke free legislation. Study subjects were 372 Italian young adolescents, between 10 and 16 years of age from the principal city of Sicily, Palermo. Urine and hair samples were collected between November 2005 and May 2006, when the legislation to ban smoking in all the enclosed places of employment (including bars, restaurants, pubs) was completely enforced. An exhaustive questionnaire including sociodemographic characteristics and active and passive exposure to cigarette smoking was completed. Urinary cotinine was analyzed by radioimmunoassay and hair nicotine by a validated GC/MS method. Based on urinary cotinine results, 2.1% and 89% of the study participants, respectively, showed non-exposure and low acute exposure to ETS, whereas only 1.6% presented very high exposure or a hidden active smoking habit in the recent past. Hair nicotine disclosed non-exposure and low exposure to ETS in 11.8% and 65.6% of the young adolescents, respectively, taking into consideration a larger time-window. High repeated exposure, suggesting active smoking in some cases was observed in 8.6% of the study subjects. Hair nicotine was inversely related to educational level of the adolescents' parents. Overall, due to the implementation of smoke-free legislation and information campaign against smoking, a significant trend toward low exposure to ETS was observed in this study cohort with no association between exposure to ETS and respiratory illnesses.

[Prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse using meconium analysis in a low socioeconomic population in Barcelona]. / Exposición prenatal a drogas de abuso a través del análisis de meconio en una población de bajo nivel socioeconómico en Barcelona.

INTRODUCTION: For the first time in Europe, the <> aimed to estimate the prevalence of drug use by pregnant women and the subsequent foetal exposure to illicit drugs. PATIENTS AND METHOD: Between October 2002 and February 2004, 1209 mother-infant dyads from the Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain met eligibility criteria and agreed to participate in the study. Data on socio-economic and demographic characteristics and on drug habits during pregnancy were collected using a structured questionnaire. Neonatal meconium was collected within 24h after birth and analyzed by standardized chromatographic techniques for the presence of opiates, cocaine, cannabinoids and amphetamines. RESULTS: Meconium analysis showed an overall 10.9% positivity for drugs of abuse, with a specific prevalence of heroin, cocaine and cannabis with foetal exposure of 4.7, 2.6 and 5.3%, respectively. Structured interviews also revealed that 0.3, 1.2 and 1.5% of mothers used heroin, cocaine and cannabis, respectively, while only one mother declared ecstasy consumption, confirmed by meconium analysis. Parental ethnicity and working class was not associated with drug use. Drug consuming mothers were shown to have a higher number of previous abortions when compared to non-consumer mothers, which was probably due to a lack of family planning. Significantly lower birth weight and length was found in newborns from mothers exposed to cocaine alone or in combination with other drugs. CONCLUSIONS: This study, although developed in a low socio-economic-status cohort, may serve as an eye opener for any hidden non-negligible drug consumption during pregnancy. In this sense, meconium analysis can be important to identify neonates with a high suspicion of exposure to drugs of abuse in utero, and provides the basis for appropriate treatment and adequate medical and social follow-up.

ORALVEQ: external quality assessment scheme of drugs of abuse in oral fluid: results obtained in the first round performed in 2007.

The Institut Municipal d'Investigació Mèdica IMIM-Hospital del Mar (Barcelona, Spain) in cooperation with the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Rome, Italy) organized an external quality assessment scheme to assess the reliability of analytical laboratories when analyzing drugs of abuse in oral fluid (ORALVEQ). For the first round of ORALVEQ, performed in February 2007, three different samples (S1, S2 and S3) were sent to 21 participating international laboratories. S1 was a blank sample and S2 and S3 were prepared by addition of drugs at known concentrations to pre-screened drug-free oral fluid (containing sodium azide) and diluted up to 50% with acidic buffer. S2 contained 6-monoacetyl morphine, morphine, cocaine and benzoylecgonine and S3 contained 3,4-methylendioxymethamphetamine and 3,4-methylendioxyamphetamine. Results were evaluated from a qualitative and quantitative point of view. Whereas only half laboratories performed screening analysis, all of them reported a quantitative result for almost all analytes. Eighteen false-positive and 3 false-negative results were reported by 8 (from a total of 21) laboratories. The quantitative evaluation was performed measuring dispersion (% coefficient of variation, CV%) and accuracy (% error, ERR%) of results and calculating the z-score values (using robust statistics). ERR% between 2% and 20% and CVs% around 40% were obtained for all analytes. In terms of z-score, a high percentage of adequate results (between 85 and 95%) was obtained. In general, the participating laboratories had a satisfactory performance. The number of false-negatives reported was very low, the false-positives were reported by a reduced number of laboratories and the scatter in the quantitative results was principally due to a few outlying values; since applying robust statistics, there was no rejection of outliers.