Determination of trimetazidine in human plasma by high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

A sensitive and specific high performance liquid chromatography/electrospray Ionization-mass spectrometry (HPLC/ESI-MS) method has been developed and validated for the identification and quantification of trimetazidine (TMZ) in human plasma. The TMZ and internal standard, lidocaine, were isolated from plasma by protein precipitation with methanol. The acidified supernatant was dried in a rotational-vacuum-concentrator, and the residue was dissolved with mobile phase prior to analysis. Chromatographic separation was performed on a Xterra MS C-18 column (150 min x 4. 6 mm, with 5 mu m particle size) with the mobile phase consisting of methanol and water (pH = 2. 0 adjusted with trifluoroacetic acid) (40:60, V/V), and the flow rate was 0. 6 mL/min. Detection was performed on a single quadrupole mass spectrometer with selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode via electrospray ionization (ESI) source. The method was linear over the concentration range of 2. 5 - 100 mu g/L for TMZ. The intra- and inter-day precisions were less than 7%, relative recovery ranged from 96. 45% to 103. 03% and the exaction recovery was between 72.45% and 80.47%. The presented work offers a relatively simple and sensitive methodology within short turn-around time, which has also been successfully applied to a clinical pharmacokinetic study.