Microextraction by packed sorbent for LC-MS/MS determination of drugs in whole blood samples

Background: Microextraction by packed sorbent (MEPS) is used as an online sample-preparation method. The determination of local anesthetics lidocaine, ropivacaine and bupivacaine directly in human blood was performed using MEPS online with LC-MS/MS. Results: The range of the calibration curves in whole blood was 10-10000 nmol/l. The lower limit of quantification was set to 10.0 nmol/l. The accuracy of the quality control samples ranged from 85 to 97%. The interday precision of the studied analytes was within the range 1-5%. The regression correlation coefficient (r(2)) was over 0.995 for all runs. The present method is rapid, reliable and robust and may be used for therapeutic drug monitoring of studied analytes in whole blood. Conclusion: This assay allows the analysis of drugs in human blood directly. Sample preparation is simple and automated. The assay reduced the handling time and the cost, and could handle small volumes of whole blood samples (25 mu l).