Determination of olprinone in human plasma utilizing liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

A sensitive and rapid method was developed for quantification of olprinone in human plasma utilizing liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). An aliquot of 1mL plasma sample was extracted with ethyl acetate–dichloromethane. Separation of olprinone and the milrinone (internal standard, IS) from the interferences was achieved on a C18 column followed by MS/MS detection. The analytes were monitored in the positive ionization mode. Multiple reaction monitoring using the transition of m/z 251→m/z 155 and m/z 212→m/z 140 was performed to quantify olprinone and IS, respectively. The method had a total chromatographic run time of 3min and linear calibration curves over the concentration range of 0.5–60ng/mL. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) was 0.5ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precisions were less than 16.3% for low QC level, and 7.1% for other QC levels, respectively. The intra- and inter-day relative errors were ranged between −12.2% and 3.7% for three QC concentration levels. The validated method was successfully applied to the quantification of olprinone concentration in human plasma after intravenous (i.v.) administration of olprinone at a constant rate of infusion of 2μg/(kgmin) for 5min in order to evaluate the pharmacokinetics.