An on-line solid phase extraction procedure for the routine quantification of caspofungin by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

Background: Extensive sets of data are required to investigate the potential use of a therapeutic drug monitoring with individualization of dosage of the antimycotic compound caspofungin. The goal was to develop an improved liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for this aim. Methods: Following protein precipitation, on-line solid phase extraction was performed for sample preparation. As the internal standard compound the veterinary drug tylosin was used. A standard validation protocol was applied. Results: Good reproducibility and accuracy of the method were observed. On-line solid phase extraction resulted in a convenient work-fl ow and good robustness of the method. Conclusions: This improved LC-MS/MS method was found reliable and convenient. It can be suggested for further work on the clinical pharmacology of caspofungin in the setting of clinical research laboratories.

Development and validation of a liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry method for determination of caspofungin in dried blood spots

“…The current analytical methods for determining caspofungin in biological fluids include high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with amperometric or ultraviolet detection and liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) . All the methods require a large volume of blood (typically about 2 mL) for harvesting plasma, and this requirement and the invasive sampling method have limited their application to pharmacokinetics studies in ICU patients.…”