Ionic Liquid‐Based Liquid–Liquid Microextraction for Benzodiazepine Analysis in Postmortem Blood Samples

Sample preparation is rapidly improving to fulfill the need for faster and more environmentally friendly alternatives. In this respect, ionic liquid-based dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (IL-DLLME) is an interesting technique. However, it has not yet been evaluated for the analysis of postmortem samples, which are frequently analyzed in forensic toxicology. This study investigates the applicability of IL-DLLME coupled to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), for the analysis of benzodiazepines in postmortem blood of 11 forensic cases. The method was compared with a validated solid-phase extraction (SPE) method. Bland-Altman analysis was performed on 24 benzodiazepine measurements. Both methods gave comparable results, except for flurazepam and temazepam (>55% difference). A feasible explanation is high postmortem matrix variability that was not considered during IL-DLLME validation experiments. Another issue could be the use of a single nondeuterated SPE internal standard. Overall, IL-DLLME has proven its usability for the analysis of postmortem blood.