Drugs-of-Abuse in Meconium Specimens.

Meconium is the first fecal material passed by the newborn. It begins to form between 12 and 16 weeks of gestation and therefore, may provide a history of in utero drug exposure during the second and third trimesters. Although meconium is easy to collect, small sample sizes, lack of homogeneity, different metabolic profiles, and the requirement for low limits of detection present analytical challenges for drug testing. Immunoassay screening assays and mass spectrometric-based confirmation procedures have been described for the common drugs-of-abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]