Rapid quantification of acetaminophen in plasma using solid-phase microextraction coupled with thermal desorption...

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Pharmacokinetics
• Mass Spectrometry

Background:

• Development of rapid and accurate analytical methods is crucial for pharmacokinetics (PK) studies.
• Traditional methods for drug quantification in plasma can be time-consuming.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate a novel Solid-Phase Microextraction coupled with Thermal Desorption Electrospray Ionization Tandem Mass Spectrometry (SPME-TD-ESI-MS/MS) method.
• To enable rapid quantification of acetaminophen in plasma samples for PK studies.

Main Methods:

• Direct immersion SPME using fused-silica fibers coated with a polyacrylate polymer.
• Acetaminophen absorbed on SPME fibers was desorbed and detected by TD-ESI-MS/MS.
• Matrix-matching calibration and linear regression analysis for quantification.

Main Results:

• The SPME-TD-ESI-MS/MS method achieved a lower limit of quantitation of 100 ng/mL within a 10-min SPME time.
• Analysis time per sample was less than 30 seconds.
• Quantification results showed good agreement with conventional LC/MS/MS methods.

Conclusions:

• The proposed SPME-TD-ESI-MS/MS method allows for rapid and accurate quantification of acetaminophen in plasma.
• The method is suitable for complete PK profiling of acetaminophen.
• Optimization of extraction parameters can further reduce analysis time.