Determination of tamsulosin in dog plasma by liquid chromatography with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometry

A rapid, sensitive and accurate liquid chromatographic–tandem mass spectrometric method is described for the determination of tamsulosin in dog plasma. Tamsulosin was extracted from plasma using a mixture of hexane–ethyl acetate (2:1, v/v) and separated on a C18 column interfaced with a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer. The mobile phase consisting of a mixture of methanol, water and formic acid (80:20:1, v/v/v) was delivered at a flow rate of 0.5 ml/min. Atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) source was operated in positive ion mode. Selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode using the transitions of m/z 409→m/z 228 and m/z 256→m/z 166.9 were used to quantify tamsulosin and the internal standard, respectively. The linearity was obtained over the concentration range of 0.1–50.0 ng/ml for tamsulosin and the lower limit of quantitation was 0.1 ng/ml. For each level of QC samples, inter- and intra-run precision was less than 5.0 and 4.0% (relative standard deviation (R.S.D.)), respectively, and accuracy was within ±0.3% (relative error (R.E.)). This method was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic study of a tamsulosin formulation product after oral administration to beagle dogs.