Assessment of alcohol consumption in mexican pregnant women by hair testing of ethyl glucuronide.

There are no studies that have utilized both biomarkers and self-reported data to evaluate maternal alcohol use during pregnancy in Mexico. Therefore, we aimed to describe the prevalence of alcohol consumption in a cohort of 300 Mexican pregnant women. We used a validated ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method to measure hair ethyl glucuronide (EtG) in hair segments that corresponded to the first and second half of pregnancy. We compared the hair EtG values to a self-reported questionnaire on maternal drinking habits and evaluated whether the gestational alcohol use was associated with psychotropic drug use. Based on the EtG measurements, 263 women (87.7%) were alcohol-abstinent during the entire pregnancy, while 37 (12.3%) had used alcohol at least once during the pregnancy. Of these, only two women were found to have problematic alcoholic behavior during the entire pregnancy. No significant differences in sociodemographic characteristics were observed between alcohol-abstinent women and women with drinking habits. The self-reporting data and hair EtG gave heterogeneous results: although 37 women had self-reported alcohol use during pregnancy, only 54.1% of these women tested positive for hair EtG. Of the women who tested positive for hair EtG, 54.1% tested positive for psychoactive substances. In our cohort, the use of drugs of abuse was independent of gestational drinking. This study provided the first objective evidence of prenatal ethanol consumption in a cohort of Mexican pregnant women.

Assessment of licit and illicit drugs consumption during pregnancy by Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS) target screening in Mexican women hair.

Substance use in pregnancy is a global public health problem, both in developed and developing countries. Whereas information is available for major western countries, scarce data are present for the second ones. The objective assessment of pregnancy consumption of xenobiotic is provided by analysis of maternal hair, which can account for gestational consumption, given the possibility to analyze 9 cm hair corresponding to the pregnancy months. Here, we describe an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS) method used as screening analysis of classic drugs, new psychoactive substances and medications in hair from a cohort of pregnant Mexican women. The UHPLC-HRMS method included Accucore™ phenyl Hexyl (100 × 2.1 mm, 2.6 µm, Thermo, USA) column with a gradient mobile phase and a full-scan data-dependent MS2 (ddMS2) mode for substances identification (mass range 100-750 m/z). Results from the first 100 samples disclosed the presence of several undeclared and declared psychoactive substances and medications, being methamphetamine and paracetamol the most prevalent ones found in 20% and 43% cases, respectively. In addition, biomarkers of cannabis and tobacco use as well as those of antihistamines and antiemetic drugs were also prevalent. Albeit preliminary, these data confirm the feasibility of hair screening by UHPLC-HRMS to objectively assess xenobiotic consumption in pregnant women with consequent risk of fetal exposure to toxic substances.