Liquid chromatography–positive ion electrospray mass spectrometry method for the quantification of citalopram in human plasma

• Published in: Journal of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences Vol. 810; no. 2; pp. 235 - 244
• Main Authors: Pistos, Constantinos, Panderi, Irene, Atta-Politou, Julia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: Elsevier B.V 25.10.2004
• Subjects: Citalopram; Electrospray ionization; High-performance liquid chromatography; Imipramine; Mass spectrometry; Imipramine; High-performance liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Electrospray ionization; Citalopram
• ISSN: 1570-0232; 1873-376X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jchromb.2004.08.003

A rapid, sensitive and novel narrow-bore liquid chromatography–mass spectrometric method was developed and fully validated for the quantification of citalopram in human plasma. The analyte and internal standard (imipramine) were extracted by liquid–liquid extraction with a mixture of hexane–heptane–isopropanol (88:10:2, v/v/v). The use of a Hypersil BDS C 8 micro-bore column (250 mm × 2.1 mm i.d.; 3.5 μm particle size), results in substantial reduction in solvent consumption. The mobile phase consisted of 10 mM ammonium formate–formic acid (pH 4.5) and acetonitrile (30:70, v/v), pumped at a flow rate of 0.15 ml min −1. The analytes were detected after positive electrospray ionization using the selected ion-monitoring mode of the species at m/ z 325 for citalopram and m/ z 281 for imipramine. The method had a chromatographic run time of 10.0 min and a linear calibration curve over the range 0.50–250 ng ml −1 ( r 2 > 0.996). The limit of quantitation was 0.50 ng ml −1. Accuracy and precision were below the acceptance limits of 15%.