Effect of tramadol use on three point-of-care and one instrument-based immunoassays for urine buprenorphine.

We report that use of the popular analgesic tramadol can cause false-positive urine buprenorphine results. We examined the extent of tramadol cross-reactivity in three point-of-care urine buprenorphine immunoassays (ACON, QuikStrip, and ABMC) and an instrument-based one (Cedia). We tested 29 urine samples from patients known to be taking tramadol. Ten different samples tested positive for urine buprenorphine by at least one immunoassay. Samples with positive buprenorphine screens by immunoassay were tested for total buprenorphine and total norbuprenorphine content by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS), which confirmed that seven of the 10 positive samples were false-positives. The remaining three positive immunoassay samples had insufficient quantity for LC-MS-MS testing. No false-positives were detected with the ACON (10 ng/mL calibration cutoff) or the Cedia assay (using a 20 ng/mL calibration cutoff). All four false-positive Cedia results (using a 5 ng/mL cutoff) in this study tested negative using the ACON device. Our data suggest that tramadol use can cause false-positive urine buprenorphine immunoassays, and this effect appears to be assay-dependent. Tramadol interference with the Cedia assay is clinically relevant, especially if the 5 ng/mL calibration cutoff is used.