Simultaneous determination of antidepressants by non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis-time of flight mass spectrometry

Simultaneous determination of 20 antidepressants in plasma samples was carried out by non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis with time of flight mass spectrometry via electrospray ionization, where a mixture of 60 mM ammonium acetate and 1 M acetic acid in acetonitrile, and water, as well as methanol (100:1:0.5, v/v/v) was selected as the background electrolyte. By using time of flight mass spectrometry, accurate mass information was obtained and the background noise was dramatically decreased, thus causing a great improvement in qualitative ability. As for the plasma sample, solid phase extraction with Oasis HLB was used. The limits of detection and quantification were in the range of 0.5–1 and 1–5 ng/ml, respectively. The sensitivity of the present method was found better, i.e. approximately 10–60 folds compared to that using photo diode array detectors because the analyte peak could be clearly distinguished from the background derived from the plasma. The present method was found very useful and practical as regards to routine analysis of plasma samples.