Measurement of ketoprofen in horse urine using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

A gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) method for the determination of ketoprofen, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), in horse urine by selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode is described. Urine samples (2 mL) were extracted by liquid-liquid extraction with diethyl ether. The residues were then evaporated, derivatized and injected into the GC-MS system. Validation of the GC-MS method in the SIM mode using flurbiprofen as the internal standard (IS) included linearity studies (10-10 000 ng/mL), recovery (95%) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) (10 ng/mL). The response was linear, with a correlation coefficient (0.9998) for ketoprofen. When applied to horse urine samples, the present method allowed detection of ketoprofen up to 16 days in FULL SCAN mode after a topical application of 1.1 g of ketoprofen in a gel formulation.