Specimen

Urine

Collection Medium:

Minimum:

Recommended minimum:  10.0 mL random urine
Absolute minimum:     2.5 mL random urine

Rejection Criteria:

Specimens exposed to repeated freeze/thaw cycles.

Analytic Time:

7 working days

Reference Range:

            Unexposed non-tobacco user    Passive exposure
Nicotine       Less than  2 ng/mL         Less than 20 ng/mL
Cotinine       Less than  5 ng/mL         Less than 20 ng/mL
3-OH-Cotinine  Less than 50 ng/mL         Less than 50 ng/mL
Nornicotine    Less than  2 ng/mL         Less than  2 ng/mL
Anabasine      Less than  2 ng/mL         Less than  2 ng/mL

             Abstinent user for greater   Active tobacco product use
                    than 2 weeks
Nicotine         Less than  30 ng/mL      1000 -  5000 ng/mL
Cotinine         Less than  50 ng/mL      1000 -  8000 ng/mL
3-OH-Cotinine    Less than 120 ng/mL      3000 - 25000 ng/mL
Nornicotine      Less than   2 ng/mL        30 -   900 ng/mL
Anabasine        Less than   2 ng/mL         3 -   500 ng/mL*

*Anabasine is another alkaloid in the tobacco plant.  Its presence at 3 
ng/mL or greater distinguishes between an active smoker and a patient 
on nicotine replacement therapy. (Threshold reduced from 10 to 3 ng/mL, 
from citation in literature).
Reference:  Clinical Chemistry 48:9 1460-1471 2002

Interpretive Data:

Compounds covered: nicotine, cotinine, 3-OH-cotinine, nornicotine, and 
anabasine.  Positive cutoff for anabasine is 3 ng/mL; 2 ng/mL for all 
other compounds.

Comments:

Random urine collections acceptable.

Methodology:

Tandem Mass Spectrometry

CPT Code:

83887