Tramadol drug is used for pain relief
Tramadol (generic for Ultram) is a prescription medication used for the management of moderate to moderately severe pain. Tramadol® has been prescribed to more than 55 million patients worldwide; Ultram® has been prescribed to more than 21 million patients in the U.S.

Screening and semi-quantitative analysis of post mortem blood for basic drugs using gas chromatography/ion trap mass spectrometry.

Paterson S, Cordero R, Burlinson S.

Toxicology Unit, Imperial College London, St. Dunstan's Road, London W6 8RP, UK. s.paterson@imperial.ac.uk

The study presented here shows that GC-MS with ion trap detection can be used for screening post mortem blood. The method described was used to simultaneously screen for unknowns, identify basic drugs present and semi-quantitate 14 drugs commonly encountered in coroner's toxicology (i.e. was used to determine whether the drugs were present in sub-therapeutic, therapeutic or greater than therapeutic amounts). The equipment used included a Varian Saturn 2000 GC-MS operating in full scan mode, a CP-3800 GC, a CP-8400 autosampler and Saturn GC-MS workstation Version 5.5 software. Post mortem blood samples were extracted using a standard liquid-liquid procedure; diethylether followed by back extraction into 0.1 M HCl. Standard curves for the 14 drugs which were semi-quantitated (amitriptyline, citalopram, clozapine, cocaine, cyclizine, diazepam, dihydrocodeine, dothiepin, methadone, mirtazapine, procyclidine, sertraline, tramadol, venlafaxine) were prepared covering the concentration range 0-1.0 ug/mL. The procedure is in routine use for coroners toxicology; semi-quantitation has been used (i) to speed-up the through put of cases where drugs are an incidental finding and (ii) for cases where the amount of sample submitted for analysis was too small to allow for screening, identification and quantitation on separate sample volumes.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15556548&query_hl=2

Selected psychoactive drugs--clinical problems and medical-legal aspects]

[Article in Polish]

Potocka B.

Z Zakladu Medycyny Sadowej Pomorskiej Akademii Medycznej w Szczecinie, al. Powstancow Wlkp. 72, 70-111 Szczecin.

The multifarious aspects of psychoactive drug use present a significant challenge to the contemporary analyst. During the first stage of the present experiment, the recovery from human serum and urine of some psychoactive drugs with acidic or basic properties was studied. The efficiency of this process was determined using solutions of drug standards added to serum or urine. Classic liquid-liquid extraction, as well as solid phase extraction methods were compared. The efficiency of recovery was checked using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results of this study confirm the usefulness of RP-18 sorbent from Merck and the importance in terms of quantitative analysis of the technique selected for isolation of the xenobiotic from the biological material. The second stage of the experiment was aimed at qualitative determination of some narcotics using thin-layer chromatography (TLC). By stepwise comparison and elimination it was possible to develop an optimal system of chromatographic separation using laminar staining. The proposed system and the conditions for separation ofxenobiotics with six selected elution systems and laminar visualization confirm the feasibility of separating 22 psychoactive drugs. The practical use of the system is limited mainly to screening. Conditions for quantitative analysis of diazepam, tramadol, and pethidine in biological material (serum, urine) using high-performance liquid chromatography, as well as morphine in serum using an immunoenzyme assay have been developed. The procedures have been applied to analysis of narcotics and psychoactive drugs administered prior to anesthesia (morphine, diazepam, pethidine) or for suppression of post-operative pain (morphine, tramadol) in 31 patients of an intensive care unit. 10 ml of blood was drawn at fixed times: 30 minutes prior to surgery (S1), at start of surgery (S2), 60 minutes later (S3), 30 minutes after administration of analgesic (S4), and 60 minutes after administration of analgesic (S5). Urine samples were also collected: immediately after surgery (M1) and 90 minutes after administration of analgesic (M2).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15552845&query_hl=2

A pilot study on the efficacy of ketorolac plus tramadol infusion combined with erythrocytapheresis in the management of acute severe vaso-occlusive crises and sickle cell pain.

de Franceschi L, Finco G, Vassanelli A, Zaia B, Ischia S, Corrocher R.

One of the major causes of hospitalization for patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) are vaso-occlusive crises (VOC), which are characterized by acute pain and organ damage related to the presence of dense red cells. Here we report a pilot study which combined balanced analgesia with tramadol plus ketorolac and erythrocytapheresis. Key words: sickle cell disease, therapeutic erythrocytapheresis, HbS, visual analog scale, vaso-occlusive crisis.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15531461&query_hl=2

Tramadol effect(1)   |   Tramadol effect(2)   |   Tramadol effect(3)   |   Tramadol effect(4)   |   Tramadol effect(4)
Tramadol effect(5)   |   Tramadol effect(6)   |   Tramadol effect(7)   |   Tramadol effect(8)   |   Tramadol effect(9)
Tramadol effect(11)   |   Tramadol effect(12)   |   Tramadol effect(13)   |   Tramadol effect(14)
Tramadol effect(15)   |   Tramadol effect(16)   |   Tramadol effect(17)   |   Tramadol effect(18)
Tramadol effect(19)   |   Tramadol effect(20)   |   Tramadol effect(21)   |   Tramadol effect(22)