Editing Ketamine (section)

=== Detection ===
Ketamine may be quantitated in blood or plasma to confirm a diagnosis of poisoning in hospitalized people, provide evidence in an impaired driving arrest, or assist in a medicolegal death investigation. Blood or plasma ketamine concentrations are usually in a range of 0.5–5.0&nbsp;mg/L in persons receiving the drug therapeutically (during general anesthesia), 1–2&nbsp;mg/L in those arrested for impaired driving, and 3–20&nbsp;mg/L in victims of acute fatal overdosage. Urine is often the preferred specimen for routine drug use monitoring purposes. The presence of norketamine, a pharmacologically active metabolite, is useful for confirmation of ketamine ingestion.<ref>Feng N, Vollenweider FX, Minder EI, Rentsch K, Grampp T, Vonderschmitt DJ. Development of a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method for determination of ketamine in plasma and its application to human samples. Ther. Drug Monit. 17: 95–100, 1995.</ref><ref>Parkin MC, Turfus SC, Smith NW, Halket JM, Braithwaite RA, Elliott SP, Osselton MD, Cowan DA, Kicman AT. Detection of ketamine and its metabolites in urine by ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. J. Chrom. B 876: 137–142, 2008.</ref><ref>R. Baselt, ''Disposition of Toxic Drugs and Chemicals in Man'', 8th edition, Biomedical Publications, Foster City, CA, 2008, pp. 806–808.</ref>