| Forensic toxicologists are often faced with the need to standardize analytical methods for a variety of drugs. New drugs are being created, or newly abused all the time, and toxicologists must stay current in their abilities to test for these drugs. Even current methods may need to be standardized or improved to be in compliance with increasing regulations. In this project, a method to test for cyclosporin, using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), will be improved and standardized, serving as a model for the standardization and refinement process.; Many different instrument conditions were experimented with, including the HPLC column, oven temperature, flow rate, and mobile phase. Once the instrument conditions were established, extraction methods were performed and compared to determine which was the most effective. Improvement of the method occurred after optimization of both the extraction procedure and instrument conditions. Once the method is optimized, standardization can occur.; The standardization of the method includes determining the linearity of the method, the limit of detection—limit of quantification, and precision, both run-to-run, and with-in run. By following the pattern set forth in this project, the testing for any drug can be optimized and standardized. |
