HPLC atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectroscopy of eight regulated sulfonamides

Reversed phase high performance liquid chromatogaphy coupled with on-line a tmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry, HPLC/APCI-MS, ha s been applied to a mixture of eight sulfonamides. In full scan mode, extra cted ion chromatograms produced minimum detectable quantities (MDQ) of 0.8 ng on column, for six of the eight regulated sulfonamides investigated. Sel ected ion monitoring yielded a 50 pg MDQ for sulfamerazine, sulfadiazine an d sulfamethazine, while, the other compounds presented higher values. Analy sis of supercritical fluid extracts of chicken liver containing sulfadimeth oxine were found to be easily detected by HPLC/APCI-MS. In extracts of chic ken liver spiked with 25 mu g kg(-1) (25 ppb) of sulfadimethoxine this comp ound could be detected in selected ion mode, while 100 pg mu l(-1) was dete ctable in either full scan or single ion modes. The analysis method for ext racted sulfadimethoxine also demonstrated good linearity and reproducibilit y in both single ion and scan mode. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ ts reserved.