Chromatographic and spectral analytical data for the determination of benzodiazepine abuse in methadone maintenance program.

Benzodiazepines are some of the most often co-abused substances in methadone treatment. Their identification in biological samples is of great importance in toxicological screening and in methadone maintenance program. The aim of this report is to describe, the analytical data making possible the identification of benzodiazepines and/or metabolites using a reversed phase liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detection.

Variations of dopamine, serotonin, and amino acid concentrations in Noda epileptic rat (NER) retina.

Noda epileptic rats (NER) exhibit frequent spontaneous tonic-clonic convulsions which represent a valuable model of human epilepsy. If implication of brain neurotransmitters was largely reported, little is known about retina. However, it has been reported that human epilepsy syndrome varies not only with the location of seizure foci but also according to rhythmic patterns, for which retina has a major role in the transmission of external light-dark cycle information.

[Determination of serum methadone with an immunologic kit and comparison with a liquid chromatography method].

Therapeutic monitoring of patients participating in methadone maintenance programmes requires the qualitative or quantitative determination of methadone in urine before and during treatment. Generally immunoassay techniques are used for this determination, but more and more often measurement of plasma or serum levels are required by the physician. The possibility of adapting a commercially available FPIA kit (TDX ABBOTT) for urinary assays to the serum determinations was investigated.