Evaluating Limit of Detection Values of Amphetamine in Urine Sample by HPLC/UV and GC/MS after Solid Phase Extraction: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Increasing use of amphetamine as a highly abused psychotropic agent has irreversible side effects and damages to both the consumer and the community. In this study, different solid-phase extraction methods in urine samples as well as various quantitative determination amphetamine methods were compared systematically. Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed databases were searched up to April 12, 2022, for relevant articles. The random-effects model was used to estimate the pooled measurements and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). All analyses were performed with STATA version 15.0. Bias publication was performed for available studies reported in the literature. After applying limit of detection (LOD) criteria, solid phase extraction, and amphetamine, 36 articles remained. Among the collected studies, 16 were included in the meta-analysis. This meta-analysis revealed that the minimum detection (i.e., the limit of detection or LOD) value for the solid-phase extraction method coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography/UV (HPLC/UV) quantification technique is equal to 7.88 ng/mL (95% CI: 3.35–12.40), while for the gas chromatography/mass (GC/MS) method, the LOD value is equal to 2.75 ng/mL (95% CI: 0.77–4.73). Despite the use of different absorbents and their varied efficiency, the methods based on GC/MS can detect the analyte with higher sensitivity than that of HPLC/UV.