Determination of domperidone in human plasma using liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry and its pharmacokinetic study

A sensitive and selective liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the quantification of domperidone (CAS number: 57808-66-9) in human plasma using paracetamol (CAS number: 103-90-2) as an internal standard (IS). Domperidone and paracetamol in plasma were extracted with ethyl acetate, separated on a C18 reversed phase column, eluted with mobile phase of acetonitrile-glacial acetic acid (0.3%) (40:60, v/v), ionized by positive ion pneumatically assisted electrospray and detected in the multi-reaction monitoring mode using precursor→product ions of m/z 426.2→175.1 for domperidone and 152→110 for the IS, respectively. The calibration curve was linear (r2≥0.99, n=5) over the concentration range of 0.2-80 ng/mL and with lower limit of detection and quantitation of 0.05 and 0.2 ng/mL. The specificity, matrix effect, recovery, sensitivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, and stabilities were validated for domperidone in human plasma. In conclusion, the validation results showed that this method was sensitive, economical and less toxic and it can successfully fulfill the requirement of clinical pharmacokinetic study of domperidone oral preparation in Chinese healthy volunteers.