title: Sulfur-specific detection of impurities in cimetidine drug substance using liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and electrospray mass spectrometry.
abstract: The use of liquid chromatography coupled to sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SF-ICP-MS) for the specific detection of sulfur-containing compounds is described. In the sulfur-containing drug substance cimetidine, structurally related impurities well below the 0.1% mass fraction level relative to the main drug substance could easily be detected. The structure of most of the impurities was confirmed by electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), and thus, the complementarity of the two techniques for drug analysis is shown. The limit of detection by SF-ICP-MS for cimetidine in solution was approximately 4-20 ng x g(-1), but it was blank-limited.
authors.affiliation: Plymouth Environmental Research Centre, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, Devon, UK. hevans@plymouth.ac.uk
authors.forename: E H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Wolff
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Eckers
mesh_terms: D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D002927:Cimetidine / Q000032:analysis*; D004340:Drug Contamination; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000379:methods*; D013379:Substrate Specificity; D013455:Sulfur / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D013455:Sulfur; D002927:Cimetidine