For toxicological screening during acute drug poisoning, laboratories must implement rapid and specific methods. Many laboratories use broad-spectrum screening to determine unknown agents in a patient's sample. Several studies have shown that toxicological screening frequently identifies unsuspected drugs in patients with drug overdoses [1,2]. In a majority of cases, all that is required to guide therapy is qualitative drug screening. Some authors have developed methods for toxicological screening [3,4] based on thin-layer chromatography (TLC) separation and ultraviolet (UV) spectral detection, respectively. (3) Toxi-Lab (Irvine, CA) has developed a drug-screening procedure based on liquid-liquid extraction, TLC separation, and reagent-spray detection (sulfuric acid, Draggendorf reagent).
