RAPID PHARMACOKINETIC SCREENING OF SALBUTAMOL IN PLASMA SAMPLES BY COLUMN-SWITCHING HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY ELECTROSPRAY MASS-SPECTROMETRY

In order to obtain pharmacokinetic data from studies in humans, a sens itive and selective assay for the quantification of salbutamol in huma n plasma samples was required. This report describes an automated high -performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry assay with pre-co lumn enrichment using internal standard calibration for the quantifica tion of salbutamol and the validation of the assay. The lower limit of quantitation is 0.2 ng/ml with an accuracy and imprecision of less th an 7%. The analysis time is 8 min per sample. (C) 1997 Elsevier Scienc e B.V.