ICP-MS Coupling to HPLC to Quantify Unknown Metabolite of Drugs in Biological Fluids

Introduction: The application of HPLC-MS/MS in pharmacokinetic studies has been extremely helpful permitting to solve complex metabolism problems; it remains however a main problem to quantify the newly identified metabolites until a quantitative standard is available. Aiming to quantitate the concentrations of unknown metabolites in absence of adequate quantitative standards, ICP-MS has been combined to HPLC and, as an example, experimental results obtained on clopidogrel, a potent antiaggregant and antithrombotic drug characterized by an extensive metabolization, are here presented.