* Disaccharides in urine samples as markers of intravenous abuse of methadone and buprenorphine.
- Methadone and buprenorphine are commonly used as oral substitutes in opiate maintenance programs to treat persons who are dependent on heroin. During these programs, patients are not allowed to continue using illicit drugs. Abstinence can easily be monitored by urine tests with immunochemical methods. It is well known that the intravenous abuse of heroin substitutes like methadone or buprenorphine has become common as well. The methadone-prescribing physician has no opportunity to check whether the opiate maintenance treatment patient takes his substitution medicines orally as intended or continues with his intravenous misuse now substituting the methadone instead of injecting heroin. In Germany, substitutes are available as liquids and tablets that contain carbohydrates as adjuvants. Sucrose is used to increase viscosity in liquids, while lactose is needed for pressing tablets (e.g., Methaddict® and Subutex®). In case of oral ingestion, disaccharides are broken down into monosaccharides by disaccharidases in the small intestine. These monosaccharides are absorbed into the blood stream by special monosaccharide transporters. Disaccharidases do not exist in blood, thus sucrose and lactose are not split if substitute medicines are injected intravenously. Our assumption, therefore, was that they are excreted unchanged in urine. We investigated a method for the detection of disaccharides in urine as markers of intravenous abuse of substitutes. Urine samples of 26 intravenous substitute abusers showed all positive results for lactose (76.9%) and/or sucrose (73.1%). The method is assumed to be useful to detect intravenous abuse of substitutes.
=>1.〜に慣れて, 2.用いられた, 中古の
Overview of verb use
The verb use has 6 senses (first 3 from tagged texts)
1. (603) use, utilize, utilise, apply, employ -- (put into service; make work or employ for a
particular purpose or for its inherent or natural purpose; "use your head!"; "we only use Spanish at
home"; "I can't use this tool"; "Apply a magnetic field here"; "This thinking was applied to many
projects"; "How do you utilize this tool?"; "I apply this rule to get good results"; "use the
plastic bags to store the food"; "He doesn't know how to use a computer")
2. (12) use, habituate -- (take or consume (regularly or habitually); "She uses drugs rarely")
3. (8) use, expend -- (use up, consume fully; "The legislature expended its time on school
questions")
4. use -- (seek or achieve an end by using to one's advantage; "She uses her influential friends to
get jobs"; "The president's wife used her good connections")
5. practice, apply, use -- (avail oneself to; "apply a principle"; "practice a religion"; "use care
when going down the stairs"; "use your common sense"; "practice non-violent resistance")
6. use -- (habitually do something (use only in the past tense); "She used to call her mother every
week but now she calls only occasionally"; "I used to get sick when I ate in that dining hall";
"They used to vacation in the Bahamas")
Overview of adj used
The adj used has 3 senses (first 3 from tagged texts)
1. (4) used -- (employed in accomplishing something; "the principle of surprise is the most used and
misused of all the principles of war"- H.H.Arnold & I.C.Eaker)
2. (1) exploited, ill-used, put-upon, used, victimized, victimised -- (of persons; taken advantage
of; "after going out of his way to help his friend get the job he felt not appreciated but used")
3. (1) secondhand, used -- (previously used or owned by another; "bought a secondhand (or used)
car")
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