[Development of the method for analysis of theophylline and its related compounds using capillary high-performance liquid chromatography/fast atom bombardment-mass spectrometry].
A convenient, reliable and sensitive method for analysis of theophylline (TH), theobromine (TB) and caffeine (CA) in biological samples by capillary high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)/fast atom bombardment (FAB)-mass spectrometry (MS) was developed using 7-ethyltheophylline (7-ETH) as an internal standard (IS). The capillary column (0.3 mm i.d.) enabled the introduction of entire effluent to the frit interface for FAB-MS; and a special column switching device was utilized for sample concentration and gradient formation. These conditions realized simultaneous determination of the compounds of as low as 50-500 ng/ml concentrations. Actually, the compounds in blood and urine could be identified and quantified for healthy subjects having TH and/or CA spontaneously. In addition, TH in human hair obtained from the patients with bronchial asthma, who had taken 400 mg TH daily for more than 2 years, could be detected by the capillary HPLC/FAB-MS. This method seems very useful for the analysis of clinical or forensic samples, because of its ability of final drug identification.
Department of Forensic Medicine, Fukuoka University School of Medicine, Japan.
Y
Y
Hieda
S
S
Kashimura
K
K
Hara
M
M
Kageura
D002110:Caffeine / Q000032:analysis; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D016339:Spectrometry, Mass, Fast Atom Bombardment / Q000379:methods*; D013805:Theobromine / Q000032:analysis; D013806:Theophylline / Q000032:analysis*
D002110:Caffeine; D013806:Theophylline; D013805:Theobromine