Sensitive Liquid Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry Method for the Simultaneous Determination of Risperidone, Olanzapine, Quetiapine, Clozapine, Ziprasidone, Perospirone, Aripiprazole and Blonanserin in Human Serum

The sensitive method for the simultaneous determination of eight atypical antipsychotic drugs (risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, clozapine, ziprasidone, perospirone, aripiprazole and blonanserin) in human serum has been developed based on a high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) with electrospray ionization (ESI). The chromatographic separation was performed on a Mightysil-RP-18 MS column (2.0 mm × 150 mm, particle size 3 μm). The mobile phase consisted of 10 mM formic ammonium buffer (pH 6.0) and acetonitrile and was delivered at a flow rate of 0.20 mL/min. The triple quadrupole mass spectrometer was operated in positive ion mode, and multiple reaction monitoring was used for drug quantification. Solid-phase extraction of the eight antipsychotic drugs added to the human serum was performed with an Oasis®HLB extraction cartridges column. The method was linear for the investigated drugs over the concentration range of 20 - 100 ng/mL. The recoveries of these drugs were in the range of 81.3% - 140%. The intraday and inter day standard deviation (SD) values for all analytes were <0.10. Therefore, the selectivity, accuracy and precision of this method are sufficient for clinical and forensic studies. This simultaneous screening method will be also applicable to analyze other atypical antipsychotic drugs.