Authors: S Souverain M Mottaz S Cherkaoui JL Veuthey
Publish Date: 2003/09/03
Volume: 377, Issue: 5, Pages: 880-885
Abstract
A rapid and sensitive method was developed for the simultaneous determination of fluoxetine and its primary metabolite norfluoxetine in plasma It was based on a columnswitching approach with a precolumn packed with large size particles coupled with a liquid chromatography–electrospray ionisation–mass spectrometry LCESIMS After a simple centrifugation plasma samples were directly injected onto the precolumn The endogenous material was excluded thanks to a high flow rate while analytes were retained by hydrophobic interactions Afterwards the target compounds were eluted in back flush mode to an octadecyl analytical column and detected by ESIMS The overall analysis time per sample from plasma sample preparation to data acquisition was achieved in less than 4 min Method performances were evaluated The method showed good linearity in the range of 25–1000 ng mL−1 with a determination coefficient higher than 099 Limits of quantification were estimated at 25 ng mL−1 for fluoxetine and norfluoxetine Moreover method precision was better than 6 in the studied concentration range These results demonstrated that the method could be used to quantify target compounds Finally the developed assay proved to be suitable for the simultaneous analysis of fluoxetine and its metabolite in real plasma samplesThe authors wish to acknowledge Dr C Eap for providing real plasma samples and Supelco Bellefonte PA USA for the gift of the analytical column Thanks are also extended to Heumann Pharma GmbH and particularly to Dr B Mümmler for providing fluoxetine and methylfluoxetine
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