Rapid and simple determination of gabapentin in urine by ion mobility spectrometry.

Gabapentin is a pharmacological agent used in the treatment of epileptic seizures. In this work, a fast method is proposed for determination of gabapentin in urine by ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) without any extraction and derivatization. ZnCl2 was used as an effective protein precipitating reagent to remove the urine proteins. It was found that urea content of urine interferes with detection of gabapentin by IMS. By applying a delay on the carrier gas flow after injection of the sample, we could solve the urea interference to achieve gabapentin signal recovery of ∼70% in urine relative to that in water.