Occurrence of Cocaine in Urine of Substance-Abuse Treatment Patients

As part of ongoing research efforts to improve methods of monitoring drug use in treatment patients, the presence of cocaine in urine specimens was evaluated as a possible marker for recent illicit cocaine use. A total of 2327 urine specimens collected during a 17-week clinical trial of a cocaine-abuse treatment study were tested. Cocaine was measured by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and benzoylecgonine (BZE) equivalents were determined by fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA). More than one-third of the specimens were positive (> 25 ng/mL) for cocaine (36.8%), and nearly two-thirds were positive (> 300 ng/mL) for cocaine metabolite by FPIA (62.7%). Median concentrations of cocaine and BZE equivalents were 235 and 14,900 ng/mL, respectively, and maximum concentrations were 112,025 and 1,101,190 ng/mL in cocaine- and BZE-positive specimens, respectively. There were 52 specimens that contained cocaine in equal or higher concentrations than BZE equivalents. No significant differences in cocaine or BZE concentrations between Caucasian and African-American or between male and female patients were found. Cocaine was present less frequently and at lower concentrations than BZE but more frequently than expected based on an average half-life of approximately 1 h, which suggests that cocaine may exhibit a longer terminal half-life and/or that accumulation of cocaine can occur in chronic, heavy users.