Drugs of Abuse Analysis Gets Automated with New Gilson GX-271 & GX-274 ASPEC™ SPE Instrumentation

An integral process in today’s drug rehabilitation programmes, whether run through specialist centres or local hospitals, is the monitoring of patients’ drug status. This is usually done through urine or blood sample analysis, every few weeks, to confirm patients are clean of drugs and only taking their prescribed methadone.

Many centres utilise Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) procedures to remove interfering substances from the samples. This generates clean extracts to improve detection limits and sensitivity in subsequent chromatographic analysis. Advanced instrumentation is now available to automate this process making it fast, efficient and increasing throughput.

The new Gilson GX ASPEC Instrument range, from Anachem is perfect for this application. It provides total handling for patient sample analysis. From simple liquid handling tasks such as dilution and buffer addition, to complex heating and derivatisation procedures, automated SPE and fraction collection. Sample dry down and injection onto the GC can also be automated with the help of ASPEC.

The ASPEC units incorporate large cartridge capacities and pressure sensing modules to ensure constant system performance in demanding laboratories. The revolutionary JetWash rinse stations vastly reduce risks of carryover or contamination between samples, ensuring maximum integrity of patient results. Combining throughput, minimal linear bench space usage plus the ability to run unattended, the GX ASPEC is the perfect choice for sample preparation in drugs of abuse analyses.

GX ASPEC is available as a single probe instrument (GX-271) or for larger centres a four probe instrument (GX-274) is capable of processing up to four samples simultaneously, increasing throughput and efficiency.

Each instrument utilizes 1, 3 and 6ml SPE cartridges and an innovative sealing cap technology based on positive pressure elutions, enables cartridges to be sealed, run and monitored separately. The GX modular design allows for the use of code 20, 200 and 300 series racks and both the GX-271 and GX-274 ASPEC are controlled using Gilson’s Trilution™ LH 2.0 software.