Detection of the plasma volume expander hydroxyethyl starch in human urine

The plasma volume expander hydroxyethyl starch (HES) is usually administered in cases of hypovolaemic shocks but in 1998 the press reported its misuse in endurance sports. Since January 2000, it has been put on the list of prohibited substances of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its misuse is to ban by doping controls. Therefore, a rapid method enabling the screening for HES in human urine was developed which can be easily adopted by IOC laboratories to analyse routine urine samples for this remedy. Excretion study urine samples obtained from patients treated with HES, blank urine specimen and reference standards, were hydrolysed with hydrochloric acid and without any further purification of the resulting monosaccharides their per-timethylsilylated derivatives were performed. By means of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry the products were separated and the α- and β-isomers of glucose, 2-, 3- and 6-hydroxyethyl glucose derivatives were identified. Typical ion traces of 2- and 3-substituted glucose (m/z 248, m/z 261 and m/z 235, m/z 248, respectively) support the fast determination of the substances whose electron impact mass spectra are presented and discussed.