Determination of testosterone in serum by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Commercial direct immunoassays for serum testosterone sometimes result in inaccuracies in samples from women and children, leading to misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment. The diagnosis of male hypogonadism also requires an accurate testosterone assay method. We therefore developed a sensitive and specific stable-isotope dilution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) method for serum testosterone at the concentrations encountered in women and children. Testosterone was extracted with ether-ethyl acetate from 250 microL or 500 microL of serum. Instrumental analysis was performed on an API 2000 tandem mass spectrometer in the multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) mode after separation on a reversed-phase column. The MRM transitions (m/z) were 289/97 for testosterone and 291/99 for d(2) testosterone. The calibration curves exhibited consistent linearity and repeatability in the range 0.2-100 nmol/L. Interassay CVs were 4.2-7.6 % at mean concentrations of testosterone of 3.3-45 nmol/L. Total measurement uncertainty (U, k = 2) was 12.9 % and 13.4 % at testosterone levels of 2.0 nmol/L and 20 nmol/L, respectively. The limit of detection was 0.05 nmol/L (signal-to-noise ratio = 3) and the overall method recovery of testosterone was 95 %. Correlation (r) with our in-house extraction RIA was 0.98 and with a commercial RIA 0.92. Reference intervals for adult males and females in age groups 18-30, 31-50, 51-70 and over 70 years were established. Sensitivity and specificity of the LC-MS/MS method offer advantages over immunoassay and make it suitable for use as a high-throughput assay in routine clinical laboratories. The high equipment costs are balanced by higher throughput together with shorter chromatographic run times.