High-performance liquid chromatography-ionspray mass spectrometry for the specific determination of digoxin and some related cardiac glycosides in human plasma.

A Tracqui, P Kintz, B Ludes, P Mangin

Index: J. Chromatogr. B. Biomed. Sci. Appl. 692(1) , 101-9, (1997)

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Abstract

An original method based upon high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to ionspray mass spectrometry (HPLC-ISP-MS) has been developed for the identification and quantification in plasma of several cardiac glycosides, namely digoxin, digitoxin, lanatoside C and acetyldigitoxin. After single-step liquid-liquid extraction by chloroform-2-propanol (95:5, v/v) at pH 9.5 using oleandrin as an internal standard, solutes are separated on a 4 microm NovaPak C18 (Waters) column (150x2.0 mm, I.D.), using a gradient of acetonitrile-2 mM NH4COOH, pH 3 buffer (flow-rate 200 microl/min, post-column split 1:3). Detection is done by a Perkin-Elmer Sciex API-100 mass analyzer equipped with an ISP interface. In most instances the major ion observed is not [M+H]+ as expected, but [M+NH4]+. The mean retention times (min) are: lanatoside C, 5.74; digoxin, 6.00; digitoxin, 8.08, oleandrin, 8.30, acetyldigitoxin, 8.66 and 9.01 (isomers alpha and beta, respectively). The lower limits of detection in single ion monitoring mode range from 0.15 ng/ml (alpha- and beta-acetyldigitoxin) to 0.60 ng/ml (lanatoside C), making the method less sensitive than radioimmunoassay, whereas it is much more specific.