Rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometric method for the quantitation of metformin in human plasma

• Published in: Journal of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences, 2004-09, Vol.808 (2), p.215-219
• Main Authors: Wang, Yingwu, Tang, Yunbiao, Gu, Jingkai, Fawcett, J.Paul, Bai, Xu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Analytical, structural and metabolic biochemistry; Biological and medical sciences; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid - methods; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General pharmacology; Humans; Hypoglycemic Agents - blood; Mass Spectrometry - methods; Medical sciences; Metformin; Metformin - blood; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity
• ISSN: 1570-0232; 1873-376X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jchromb.2004.05.006

A rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometric (LC–MS–MS) method for the determination of metformin in human plasma using phenformin as internal standard has been developed and validated. Sample preparation of plasma involved acidification with acetic acid, deproteination with acetonitrile and washing with dichloromethane. Samples were then analyzed by HPLC on a short Nucleosil C 18 column (5 μm, 50 mm × 4.6 mm i.d.) using a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile:methanol:10 mM ammonium acetate pH 7.0 (20:20:60, v/v/v) delivered at 0.65 ml/min. Detection was performed using an Applied Biosystems Sciex API 4000 mass spectrometer set at unit resolution in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. Atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) was used for ion production. The assay was linear over the range 1–2000 ng/ml with intra- and inter-day precision of