A rapid and sensitive ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the simultaneous determination of atorvastatin calcium and lisinopril in rat plasma and its application in a pharmacokinetic study

Atorvastatin calcium and lisinopril are commonly used to reduce cholesterol and control blood pressure in the clinic. In this study, a sensitive and rapid method was developed and validated for the simultaneous detection of plasma concentrations of atorvastatin calcium and lisinopril using an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with an ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 column. The mobile phase of methanol and 0.1% formic acid aqueous solution was pumped at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. The retention times of atorvastatin calcium and lisinopril were 2.48 min and 1.99 min, respectively. The linear range of atorvastatin calcium in plasma samples was 1-2000 ng/mL, while that of lisinopril was 5-2000 ng/mL. The absolute values of intraday and inter-day precision and accuracy were all below 15%. Furthermore, the recovery and matrix effects of atorvastatin calcium, lisinopril, and nimodipine were 80%-120% and 85%-115%, respectively. Therefore, the developed method can be applied for the simultaneous quantification of atorvastatin calcium and lisinopril in rat plasma. The Cmax were about 199 ng/mL and 2059 ng/mL for atorvastatin calcium and lisinopril, respectively. In addition, the T1/2 of atorvastatin calcium and lisinopril were 0.6 & PLUSMN; 0.3 and 5.4 & PLUSMN; 1.7 h, respectively.