Rapid and sensitive determination of propofol glucuronide in hair by liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry.

ABSTRACT

A fast, sensitive and selective liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for the detection and quantitation of propofol glucuronide in human hair has been developed and validated. Propofol glucuronide was extracted from 10mg of hair using a simple methanol extraction method, with recovery greater than 91% at 3 quality control samples (15, 100, 4000 pg/mg). A reversed phase column (C8) was used to analyze and the mobile phase was composed of ammonium formate and acetonitrile gradient at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. The lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) was 5 pg/mg and the assay was linear to 5000 pg/mg. The intra- and inter-day precision (% CV, coefficient of variation) ranged from 1.26 to 4.50% while the accuracy (% RE, relative error) were -4.24 to 4.4%. The matrix effects were monitored at 3 different concentrations and the %CV of the results for these concentrations was less than 10.6%. Propofol glucuronide was stable during processing and analysis in human hair. The procedure was validated and applied to the analysis of hair samples in human subjects previously administered in propofol.