title: [Determination of plasma escitalopram with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish an liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS)-based method for determining escitalopram in human plasma.
  
  
  METHODS
  A liquid-liquid ether extraction approach was adopted using dextromethorphan as the internal standard. The Agilent ZORBAX SB-C18 (3.5 microm,2.1 x 150 mm) was used as the analytical column with acetonitrile-NH4AC buffer (70:30, V/V) as the mobile phase at the flow rate of 0.3 ml/min. The sample was ionized by electrospray ionization source in the triple quadruple tandem mass spectrometer, and the plasma escitalopram determined with a multiple reaction monitoring mode of m/z325.4-->109.4.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The linear range was 0.0866-64.13 microg/L (r=0.9965) for escitalopram in human plasma, with the absolute recovery between 64.98% and 78.72% and the within-day and between-day deviations less than 10%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The method is sensitive, accurate, rapid, specific and well applicable for clinical pharmacokinetics study of escitalopram.
authors.affiliation: Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China. hzheng@tjh.tjmu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Heng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Wen-Yan
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation / Q000097:blood / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D015283:Citalopram / Q000097:blood* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D006801:Humans; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation; D015283:Citalopram