Sensitive method for the quantitative determination of bromocriptine in human plasma by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A sensitive LC–MS–MS assay for the quantitative determination of bromocriptine has been developed and validated and is described in this work. The assay involved the extraction of the analyte from 1 ml of human plasma using a solid phase extraction on Oasis MCX cartridges. Chromatography was performed on a Symmetry C18 (2.1 mm × 100 mm, 3.5 μm) column using a mobile phase consisting of 25:75:01 acetonitrile–water–formic acid with a flow rate of 250 μl/min. The linearity was within the concentration range of 2–500 pg/ml. The lower limit of quantification was 2 pg/ml. This method has been demonstrated to be an improvement over existing methods due to its greater sensitivity and specificity.