Alberto Salomone

Publications (17) View all

• Article: Multivariate strategies for screening evaluation of harmful drinking.

  Valentina Pirro, Paolo Oliveri, Bruno Sciutteri, Raffaella Salvo, Alberto Salomone, Silvia Lanteri, Marco Vincenti
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  ABSTRACT: Background: A chemometric class modeling strategy (unequal dispersed classes [UNEQ]) is applied for the first time to evaluate harmful alcohol drinking within large population screening programs, in comparison with traditional strategies of data interpretation. Five inexpensive indirect biomarkers (aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, γ-glutamyltransferase, mean corpuscular volume and carbohydrate-deficient transferrin) were determined in blood samples from 423 patients, classified as low-risk or harmful drinkers, according to their ethanol consumption. Results: The multivariate UNEQ approach remarkably improves the diagnostic performances of indirect biomarkers in harmful drinking evaluation, leading to reliable decision rules, with few doubtful classifications to be reviewed through complex confirmation procedures. Conclusion: This UNEQ model represents an innovative general approach for clinical evaluation that efficiently extracts the information content present in each biomarker to provide a new synthetic multivariate parameter, to be directly used in diagnostic protocols.
  Bioanalysis 03/2013; 5(6):687-99. · 3.22 Impact Factor
• Article: Determination of pharmaceutical and illicit drugs in oral fluid by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

  D Di Corcia, S Lisi, V Pirro, E Gerace, A Salomone, M Vincenti
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  ABSTRACT: A simple and extremely fast procedure for the quantitative determination in oral fluid samples of 44 substances, including the most common drugs of abuse and several pharmaceutical drugs, was developed and fully validated. Preliminary sample treatment was limited to protein precipitation. The resulting acetonitrile solution was directly injected into an ultra-high performance liquid chromatograph (UHPLC) equipped with a C18 column (100mm×2.1mm, 1.7μm). The mobile phase eluted with linear gradient (water/formic acid 5mM: acetonitrile/formic acid 5mM; v:v) from 98:2 to 0:100 in 5.0min, followed by isocratic elution at 100% B for 1.0min. The flow rate was 0.6mL/min and the total run time was 9.0min including re-equilibration at the initial conditions. The analytes were revealed by a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer operating in the selected reaction monitoring mode. The method proved to be simple, accurate, rapid and highly sensitive, allowing the simultaneous detection of all compounds. The ease of sample treatment, together with the wide range of detectable substances, all with remarkable analytical sensitivity, make this procedure ideal for the screening of large populations in several forensic and clinical contexts, whenever oral fluid sampling has to be preferred to blood sampling, as for example in short retrospective investigations.
  Journal of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences 02/2013; · 2.78 Impact Factor
• Article: Application of mass spectrometry to hair analysis for forensic toxicological investigations.

  Marco Vincenti, Alberto Salomone, Enrico Gerace, Valentina Pirro
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  ABSTRACT: The increasing role of hair analysis in forensic toxicological investigations principally owes to recent improvements of mass spectrometric instrumentation. Research achievements during the last 6 years in this distinctive application area of analytical toxicology are reviewed. The earlier state of the art of hair analysis was comprehensively covered by a dedicated book (Kintz, 2007a. Analytical and practical aspects of drug testing in hair. Boca Raton: CRC Press and Taylor & Francis, 382 p) that represents key reference of the present overview. Whereas the traditional organization of analytical methods in forensic toxicology divided target substances into quite homogeneous groups of drugs, with similar structures and chemical properties, the current approach often takes advantage of the rapid expansion of multiclass and multiresidue analytical procedures; the latter is made possible by the fast operation and extreme sensitivity of modern mass spectrometers. This change in the strategy of toxicological analysis is reflected in the presentation of the recent literature material, which is mostly based on a fit-for-purpose logic. Thus, general screening of unknown substances is applied in diverse forensic contexts than drugs of abuse testing, and different instrumentation (triple quadrupoles, time-of-flight analyzers, linear and orbital traps) is utilized to optimally cope with the scope. Other key issues of modern toxicology, such as cost reduction and high sample throughput, are discussed with reference to procedural and instrumental alternatives. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Mass Spec Rev.
  Mass Spectrometry Reviews 11/2012; · 10.46 Impact Factor
• Article: Fast screening of 88 pharmaceutical drugs and metabolites in whole blood by ultra high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

  Marco Vincenti, Daniele Cavanna, Enrico Gerace, Valentina Pirro, Michele Petrarulo, Daniele Di Corcia, Alberto Salomone
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  ABSTRACT: Forensic investigations involving acute or lethal in-toxication, drug-facilitated sexual assault, driving or workplace impairment frequently require the analysis of fresh or postmor-tem blood samples to check out a wide variety of pharmaceu-tical and illicit drugs, even after single-dose consumption. A sensitive and selective ultrahigh-performance liquid chroma-tography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) screening method was developed for fast screening of 88 psychoactive drugs and metabolites in blood samples, including the ones most frequently involved in acute intoxications and forensic investigations in Italy. The new method allows short sample processing and analysis time (the whole procedure can be accomplished in less than 30 min) together with the simul-taneous monitoring of a large number of pharmaceutical sub-stances. These features represent crucial factors in the approach of acute intoxications, when the patient requires urgent and appropriate therapy. Blood sample treatment was limited to protein precipitation. Two UHPLC–MS/MS runs in positive and negative electrospray ionization modes were performed. The data were acquired at unit mass resolution in the selected reaction monitoring mode. According to international guide-lines, linearity range, precision, trueness, detection and quanti-fication limits, recovery, selectivity, specificity, carryover, and matrix effect phenomena were determined. Despite the limited sample purification and the inherent decreased chance of elim-inating any potential interference, the present multiresidue screening method proved extremely effective and sensitive, allowing the detection of all tested drugs, even those belonging to structurally different classes of substances. Moreover, the developed method is easily susceptible to further expansion to encompass more drugs, either new or those becoming impor-tant for criminal investigation. This protocol was also applied to the analysis of authentic blood samples collected from victims of various crimes in routine casework, whose relevance in forensic investigations is presented in five cases.
  Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 09/2012; · 3.78 Impact Factor
• Article: A fast liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for determining benzodiazepines and analogues in urine. Validation and application to real cases of forensic interest.

  Alberto Salomone, Enrico Gerace, Paola Brizio, M Carla Gennaro, Marco Vincenti
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  ABSTRACT: A fast liquid chromatographic/tandem mass spectrometric method was developed for the simultaneous determination in human urine of seventeen benzodiazepines, four relevant metabolites together plus zolpidem and zopiclone. The sample preparation, optimized to take into account the matrix effect, was based on enzymatic hydrolysis and liquid-liquid extraction. The separation of the twenty-three analytes was achieved in less than eight minutes. The whole methodology was fully validated according to UNI EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005 rules and 2006 SOFT/AAFS guidelines. Selectivity, linearity range, identification (LOD) and quantitation (LOQ) limits, precision, accuracy and recovery were evaluated. For all the species the signal/concentration linearity was satisfactory in the 50-1000 ng/mL concentration range. The limits of detection ranged from 0.5 to 30 ng/mL and LOQs from 1.7 to 100.0 ng/mL. Precisions were in the ranges 5.0-11.8%, 1.5-11.0% and 1.1-4.4% for low (100 ng/mL), medium (300 ng/mL) and high (1000 ng/mL) concentration, respectively. The accuracy, expressed as bias% was within ± 25 % for all the analytes. The recovery values, evaluated at 300 ng/mL concentration, ranged from 56.2% to 98.8%. The present method for the determination of several benzodiazepines, zolpidem and zopiclone in human urine proved to be simple, fast, specific and sensitive. The quantification by LC-MS/MS was successfully applied to 329 forensic cases among driving re-licensing, car accidents and alleged sexual violence cases.
  Journal of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis 11/2011; 56(3):582-91. · 2.45 Impact Factor