Clinical Information

Cocaine is an alkaloid found in Erythroxylon coca, which grows principally in the northern South American Andes and, to a lesser extent, in India, Africa, and Java.(1) Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant drug. Cocaine abuse has a long history, is rooted in the drug culture in the United States,(2) and is 1 of the most common illicit drugs of abuse.(3,4) Cocaine is rapidly metabolized primarily to benzoylecgonine, which is further metabolized to m-hydroxybenzoylecgonine (m-HOBE).(1,5) Cocaine is frequently used with other drugs, most commonly alcohol, and the simultaneous use of both can be determined by the presence of the unique metabolite cocaethylene.(4)

Intrauterine drug exposure to cocaine has been associated with placental abruption, premature labor, small for gestational age status, microcephaly, and congenital anomalies (eg, cardiac and genitourinary abnormalities, necrotizing enterocolitis, and central nervous system stroke or hemorrhage).(6)

The disposition of drug in meconium, the first fecal material passed by the neonate, is not well understood. The proposed mechanism is that the fetus excretes drug into bile and amniotic fluid. Drug accumulates in meconium either by direct deposition from bile or through swallowing of amniotic fluid.(7) The first evidence of meconium in the fetal intestine appears at approximately the 10th to 12th week of gestation and slowly moves into the colon by the 16th week of gestation.(8) Therefore, the presence of drugs in meconium has been proposed to be indicative of in utero drug exposure during the final 4 to 5 months of pregnancy, a longer historical measure than is possible by urinalysis.(7)