THE USE OF TURBULENT-FLOW CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY FOR THE RAPID, DIRECT ANALYSIS OF A NOVEL PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOUND IN PLASMA

The use of turbulent flow chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (turbulent how LC/MS) shows great potential for the rapid, direct anal ysis of pharmaceutical compounds in plasma and serum, The use of turbu lent flow LC/MS has removed the need for any time-consuming sample pre paration such as solid phase extraction, and allowed a total sample an alysis time of approximately 2.5 min to be achieved. The coupling of a mass spectrometer with HPLC often not only results in greater sensiti vity, but also the added specificity of the mass spectrometer reduces the need for complete resolution of the analyte from endogenous materi al in the matrix. This allows an on-line analysis approach to be used for the analysis of pharmaceuticals in biological matrices. Turbulent flow chromatography is achieved by the use of high flow rates and larg e particle size stationary phases, When coupled with mass spectrometri c detection, the technique allows the direct analysis of plasma or ser um samples with very rapid chromatography and, therefore, extremely hi gh throughput. This work demonstrates the suitability of this techniqu e for the validated analysis of biological samples for a novel isoquin oline pharmaceutical and offers some ideas on the future Continued dev elopment, optimization and application of turbulent flow liquid chroma tography. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.