High speed determination of beta-receptor blocking agents in human urine by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

Beta-receptor blocking agents are present on the international market in a huge variety. The International Olympic Committee prohibits the use of thes e drugs in several sport sections and doping control laboratories analyse u rine samples of high-performance athletes with different techniques. Theref ore, fast and reliable methods are required to enable a sensitive detection of many drugs and a high throughput of samples. In the present study a scr eening procedure is described using high speed liquid chromatography and mu ltiple reaction monitoring to identify 32 beta-receptor blocking agents ext racted from human urine. Urine specimens (blank urine samples, spiked urine samples and specimens of excretion studies) were hydrolysed, extracted and analysed within 7 min. Quasi-molecular ions (M+ + H) of the beta-blockers are generated by means of an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization inter face followed by collision-induced dissociation in a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer and subsequent detection of daughter ions. Proposals for the origin of common and individual secondary ions are presented. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.