LC-MS/MS application in pain management / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Pain management is the monitoring of chronic pain patients under long-term treatment with controlled analgesic drugs via random or regular lab tests. Plenty of clinical data showed that pain management could not only improve the patient′s compliance to prescribed drugs and result in better outcome,but also greatly reduce the possibility of controlled analgesic drugs into the underground market illegally. Drugs that are usually internationally recommended in pain management include opiates, opioids, sedative drugs, stimulant, hallucinogens etc. Considering drug metabolism rates difference among individuals and ease of sampling,random urine is usually the first choice of specimen for drug testing in pain management. In terms of methodology,LC-MS/MS has become a"gold standard"approach due to its high sensitivity,high specificity and wide usability.