Use of high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection after a primary drug screening in patients admitted to the emergency department.

Two hundred fifty samples of patients admitted to the Emergency Department at the Hospital Municipal de Urgencias, Córdoba, Argentina for a drug screening by HPTLC, FPIA, spectrophotometric methods, and HPLC/DAD were randomly selected. The rate of positive screens was 34.0% with the following rate distribution: 12.0% alcohol, 13.6% nonsteroid antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), 2.0% anticonvulsants, 0.8% barbiturates, 0.4% narcotics, 0.4% antidepressants, 2.8% cocaine, and 2.0% cannabinoids. Psychoactive drugs (alcohol, cocaine, and cannabinoids) were detected in 43.9% of the patients admitted for traffic accidents, namely 35.71% alcohol, 2.38% alcohol-cocaine, 2.38% alcohol-cannabinoids, 2.38% cocaine-cannabinoids, and 2.38% alcohol-cocaine-cannabinoids. These results help identify the trend of use and/or abuse of drugs and its relationship with different causes of admission (accidents, overdose, and other pathologies), age, and gender.