What is the future of (ultra) high performance liquid chromatography coupled to low and high resolution mass spectrometry for toxicological drug screening?

This paper reviews critically LC-MS approaches for toxicological drug screening using (ultra) high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled to low and high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) published since 2010. A concluding discussion focuses on progress and current status of sample workup, separation by HPLC vs. UHPLC, MS detection modes and their specificity, universality of LC-MS libraries, and validation necessary of LC-MS for screening methods. Finally, a discussion on what the future holds for LC-MS drug screening in clinical and forensic toxicology completes this review article. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.