Screening and Quantitative Determination of Twelve Acidic and Neutral Pharmaceuticals in Whole Blood by Liquid-Liquid Extraction and Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

We describe a multi-method for simultaneous identification and quantification of 12 acidic and neutral compounds in whole blood. The method involves a simple liquid-liquid extraction, and the identification and quantification are performed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The method was fully validated for salicylic acid, paracetamol, phenobarbital, carisoprodol, meprobamate, topiramate, etodolac, chlorzoxazone, furosemide, ibuprofen, warfarin, and salicylamide. The method also tentatively includes thiopental, theophylline, piroxicam, naproxen, diclophenac, and modafinil, but these drugs were not included in the full validation program and are not described in detail here. Limit of quantitation was 1 mg/kg for the compounds with coefficients of variation of < 20%, except for furosemide, which had a coefficient of variation of 32% at limit of quantitation. The measuring interval was wide for most components. Extraction efficiencies were high, reflecting the high-yield capacity of the method.