Liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometric determination of lornoxicam in human plasma

A rapid, sensitive and selective liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometric (LC-ESI-MS/MS) method for the determination of lornoxicam in human plasma was developed. Lornoxicam and isoxicam (internal standard) were extracted from human plasma with ethyl acetate at acidic pH and analyzed on a Sunfire C₁₈ column with the mobile phase of methanol:ammonium formate (10 mM, pH 3.0) (70:30, v/v). The analyte was detected using a mass spectrometer, equipped with electrospray ion source. The instrument was set in the multiple-reaction-monitoring mode. The standard curve was linear (r = 0.9998) over the concentration range of 0.50-500 ng/mL. The coefficient of variation and relative error for intra-and inter-assay at four QC levels were 0.7 to 4.2% and -4.5 to 5.0%, respectively. The recoveries of lornoxicam and isoxicam were 87.8% and 66.5%, respectively. The lower limit of quantification for lornoxicam was 0.50 ng/mL using a 200 μL plasma sample. This method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of lornoxicam after oral administration of lornoxicam (8 mg) to humans.