Two-step silylation procedure for the unified analysis of 190 doping control substances in human urine samples by GC-MS.

Background: While a number of different derivatization procedures for screening GC-MS analysis of prohibited substances are followed by doping control laboratories, a unified derivatization procedure for the GC-MS analysis of 190 different doping agents was developed.

Results: Following preliminary experiments, a two-step derivatization procedure was selected. The evaluation of various silylation parameters, such as reagent composition, reaction time, reaction temperature, catalysts and microwave oven reaction time, for this procedure was carried out.

Conclusions: The suitability of the developed procedure was demonstrated through application on urine samples at concentration levels of the minimum required performance limit for all tested substances. This new derivatization procedure, which significantly decreases time and cost, is suitable for a routine basis application.