Sensitive method for the quantitative determination of bromocriptine in human plasma by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A sensitive LC-MS-MS assay for the quantitative determination of bromocriptine has been developed and validated and is described in this work. The assay involved the extraction of the analyte from 1ml of human plasma using a solid phase extraction on Oasis MCX cartridges. Chromatography was performed on a Symmetry C-18 (2.1 mm x 100 mm, 3.5 μ m) column using a mobile phase consisting of 25:75:01 acetonitrile-water-formic acid with a flow rate of 250 μ l/min. The linearity was within the concentration range of 2-500 pg/ml. The lower limit of quantification was 2 pg/ml. This method has been demonstrated to be an improvement over existing methods due to its greater sensitivity and specificity. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.