Ultra-performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry method for the estimation of miglitol in human plasma using metformin as the internal standard

A rapid and sensitive method for the determination of miglitol in human plasma was developed using ultra-performance liquid chromatographic separation with tandem mass spectrometry detection. The preparation of samples required a deproteinization step with acetonitrile. Chromatography was performed on a 5 µ (50 mm × 4.6 mm, ID.) C18 inertsil column, with the mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile 2 mM and ammonium acetate (pH 3.5) with formic acid. Detection was performed using an Applied Biosystems Sciex API 2000 mass spectrometer set at unit resolution in the multiple reaction monitoring mode. Electrospray ionization was used for ion production. The mean recovery of miglitol was 88.9%, with the lower limit of quantification set at 150 ng/mL. Linearity was established for concentrations in the range of 150-4000 ng/mL, with a coefficient of determination (r(2) ) of 0.9981. This assay method makes use of the increased sensitivity and selectivity of tandem mass spectrometric detection, resulting in high-throughput analysis of miglitol for bioequivalence studies.