Validated LC-MS-MS method for the determination of quetiapine in human plasma: application to a pharmacokinetic study

A sensitive and selective liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) method for the determination of quetiapine was developed and validated over the linearity range 1-1500 ng/mL with 0.1 mL of plasma using clozapine as the internal standard. Detection was performed on a triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer using positive electrospray ionization and quantification was performed by selected reaction monitoring mode. The MS-MS ion transitions monitored were m/z 384.1 → 253.1 and 327.0 → 270.0 for quetiapine and clozapine, respectively. The between- and within-run precision was less than 7.44% and accuracy was less than 10.2%. The lower limit of quantification was 1 ng/mL. The extraction recoveries of quetiapine were over 90%. The method is proved to be accurate and specific, and was applied to the pharmacokinetic study in healthy Chinese volunteers.