Column switching in high-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometric detection for high-throughput preclinical pharmacokinetic studies

A high-throughput liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method is described for the determination of multiple compounds in dog and rat plasma . After acetonitrile precipitation of plasma proteins, the analytes are pre concentrated and back-flushed on a reversed-phase column for separation usi ng a switching valve. The analytes are ionized using TurboIon Spray in a po sitive mode, and detected by multiple reaction monitoring. Automatic tuning software is used for fast method development. The data processing is great ly speeded up by using a powerful quantitation software package. Chromatogr aphy of multiple compounds takes only 4 min. The linear calibration curve r anges from 0.5 to 1000 ng/ml. This method was successfully used in the anal ysis of multi-compounds for preclinical pharmacokinetic studies. (C) 1998 E lsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.