Study on Stability of Remifentanil, Sufentanil, and Their Metabolites in Human Whole Blood and Urine
Remifentanil exhibited significant instability in whole blood, degrading over 50% within 6 h at 4 °C, whereas stability was markedly improved at -80 °C and in sodium citrate-containing samples. Remifentanil acid remained stable for up to 35 days at -80 °C. Sufentanil was generally more stable, particularly at -80 °C in both blood and urine, while norsufentanil remained stable for 7 days at -20 °C in citrate-anticoagulated blood but degraded rapidly at 4 °C. These findings support specific recommendations for sample preservation, including storage at -80 °C and the use of sodium citrate as an anticoagulant, to enhance detection reliability in toxicological and pharmacokinetic studies.
Authors
- Keming Yun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5934-4164)
- Zhuoyi Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1058-2791)
- Xian Ju (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-9126-6057)
- Xiaoxi Mu
- Kaili Du (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5736-998X)
- Xiaoli Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9385-8107)
- Tao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0829-2895)
- Zhe Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9113-6362)
- Yingwen Xu
- Dan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7475-0750)
- Huan Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1863-6037)
- Jianguo Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9431-2950)
- Dong Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0001-3122)
- Zhiwen Wei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9189-5705)
- D. T. W. Liang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3362-5879)
Institutions
- Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China (CN)
- Shanxi Medical University (CN)
- Shanghai Public Security Bureau (CN)
- National Institute for Radiological Protection (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Metabolites
- Published
- 2025-12-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo15120804
- Primary Topic
- Anesthesia and Sedative Agents
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00