Methadone concentrations in exhaled breath condensate,serum and urine of patients under maintenance treatment

Drug abuse is a serious problem causing health,economical and psycho-social negative outcomes. methadone is commonly used drug for management of drug addiction. exhaled breath condensate (ebc) is a promising non-invasive biological sample which attracted more attention in recent years. this work aimed to extend the applicability of a developed preconcentration-liquid chromatographic method for analysis of methadone in serum and urine samples. drug concentrations in ebc,serum and urine are also investigated for dose-concentration and their inter-correlations. biological samples were collected from 53 patients receiving methadone and the concentrations were determined using a validated analytical method after a pre-concentration step. methadone measured in all samples and there are correlations between administered dose of methadone and its serum and urine concentrations. a weak correlation is observed between dose and ebc concentration. wider variations in ebc concentrations of methadone could be justified concerning a number of affecting parameters such as relative humidity of the collection area and further investigations are required for standardization of ebc as a non-invasive biological sample to be used in clinical practice. © 2017 by school of pharmacy shaheed beheshti university of medical sciences and health services.