Testing umbilical cord tissue for drugs: Lower analytical limits, better concordance with meconium results

Colby et al discussed the equivalency of umbilical cord and meconium testing to evaluate in utero exposure to drugs.1 The authors applied "commercial" umbilical cord tissue and gold standard meconium toxicology tests for detection of several drugs in paired umbilical cord and meconium samples from 501 neonates. The results in both specimens were often discordant. However, the overall prevalence of drugs in umbilical cord and meconium was similar for several groups, and the agreement between both specimens ranged from 80% to 100%.

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