A sensitive, accurate and selective liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method (LC-MS/MS) was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantitation of atorvastatin (AT) and its equipotent hydroxyl metabolites, 2-hydroxy atorvastatin (2-AT) and 4-hydroxy atorvastatin (4-AT), in human plasma. Electrospray ionization (ESI) interface in negative ion mode was selected to improve the selectivity and the sensitivity required for this application. Additionally, a solid phase extraction (SPE) step was performed to reduce any ion-suppression and/or enhancement effects. The separation of all compounds was achieved in less than 6 min using a C18 reverse-phase fused-cores column and a mobile phase, composed of a mixture of 0.005%formic acid in water:acetonitrile:methanol (35:25:40, v/v/v), in isocratic mode at a flow rate of 0.6 mL/min. The method has lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) of 0.050 ng/mL for all analytes. The method has shown tremendous reproducibility, with intra-and inter-day precision less than 6.6%, and intra- and inter-day accuracy within 74.3% of nominal values, for all analytes, and has proved to be highly reliable for the analysis of clinical samples.

An analytical method based on solid phase extraction was developed and validated for analysis of adefovir in human plasma. Adefovir-d4 was used as an internal standard and Synergi MAX RP80A (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 4μm) column provided the desired chromatographic separation of compounds followed by detection with mass spectrometry. The method used simple isocratic chromato-graphic condition and mass spectrometric detection in the positive ionization mode. The calibration curves were linear over the range of 0.50–42.47 ng/mL with the lower limit of quantitation validated at 0.50 ng/mL. Matrix effect was assessed by post-column infusion experiment to monitor phospholipids and post-extraction addition experiment was performed. The degree of matrix effect for adefovir was determined as 7.5%and ion-enhancement in five different lots of human plasma was 7.1%and had no impact on study samples analysis with 4.5 min run time. The intra- and inter-day precision values were within 7.7% and 7.8%, respectively, for adefovir at the lower limit of quantification level. Validated bioanalytical method was successfully applied to clinical sample analysis.