title: Determination of nifurtimox in dog plasma by stable-isotope dilution LC-MS/MS.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nifurtimox is a 5-nitrofuran derived antiprotozoal drug used to treat diseases caused by trypanosomes including Chagas' disease and sleeping sickness (African trypanosomiasis). Available methods for the determination of nifurtimox in plasma are tedious and of low sensitivity. For the first time, an isotope dilution HPLC/MS/MS method for the sensitive quantitation of nifurtimox down to 10.0 μg/l in plasma is described.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Protein precipitation was used for sample preparation. Samples were analyzed on a standard triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer. The validated concentration range covers 10.0 μg/l (LLOQ) to 5000 μg/l. Interassay accuracy and precision (%CV) ranged from 98.4 to 101%, and 2.61 to 10.1%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The method consists of very simple sample preparation and provides unmatched sensitivity, high reproducibility and robustness enabling analysis of large sample numbers. Method performance met current guidelines on bioanalytical method validation.
authors.affiliation: Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics, Pharmaceutical Research Center, Bayer HealthCare AG, Aprather Weg 18A, D-42096 Wuppertal, Germany.
authors.forename: Mark-Jean
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Gnoth
authors.affiliation: Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics, Pharmaceutical Research Center, Bayer HealthCare AG, Aprather Weg 18A, D-42096 Wuppertal, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter-Michael
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Hopfe
authors.affiliation: Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics, Pharmaceutical Research Center, Bayer HealthCare AG, Aprather Weg 18A, D-42096 Wuppertal, Germany.
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Thuss
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D007201:Indicator Dilution Techniques; D007553:Isotope Labeling / Q000379:methods*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008297:Male; D009547:Nifurtimox / Q000097:blood*; D010949:Plasma / Q000737:chemistry*; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D014344:Trypanocidal Agents / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D014344:Trypanocidal Agents; D009547:Nifurtimox