Determination of lamotrigine in human serum by high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for quantification of lamotrigine in human serum. After a simple protein precipitation using acetonitrile, the analytes were separated on a Shideido 150 mm × 2.0 mm, 5 μm Capcell Pak C18 MG column using 70% acetonitrileas mobile phase at a flow rate of 200 μl/min. Lamotrigine was eluted at 1.98 min, ionized using electrospray ionization source, and then detected by multiple reaction monitoring mode. The precursor to product ion transitions of m/z 256.1–109.0 was used to quantify. The analytical measurement range is from 0.1 to 20 μg/ml and the upper clinical reportable range is chosen to be 100 μg/ml. The method was successfully employed in a clinical application.