Sensitive method for the detection of 22 benzodiazepines by gas chromatography–ion trap tandem mass spectrometry

A gas chromatography–ion trap tandem mass spectrometry method for simultaneous detection of 22 benzodiazepines is presented. Four operating modes were first optimized: the electron impact ionization and chemical ionization modes were compared on both underivatized and trimethylsilylated drugs. Results were compared in terms of sensitivity in MS–MS experiments. The trimethylsilylation of benzodiazepines including a protic functional group allows decreasing their detection threshold by a factor of 10–100. In terms of sensitivity, the comparison between both ionization modes shows that the most efficient one depends on the benzodiazepine considered. The use of an ion trap analyzer allows switching from an ionization mode to another one during the chromatographic process. It also provides a great selectivity owing to the MS–MS and multiple reaction monitoring acquisition modes. The detection thresholds are in the range 10–500 pg/μl for all the studied benzodiazepines but the three “triazolo” ones: estazolam, alprazolam and triazolam, have a detection threshold of 1 ng/μl. The applicability of the method on whole blood and urine extracts was demonstrated on an example implying five benzodiazepines among the most frequently encountered in forensic toxicology: nordazepam, oxazepam, bromazepam, flunitrazepam and prazepam.