Enantioselective determination of doxazosin in human plasma by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry using ovomucoid chiral stationary phase.

An enantioselective and sensitive method was developed and validated for determination of doxazosin enantiomers in human plasma by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The enantiomers of doxazosin were extracted from plasma using ethyl ether/dichloromethane (3/2, v/v) under alkaline conditions. Baseline chiral separation was obtained within 9 min on an ovomucoid column using an isocratic mobile phase of methanol/5mM ammonium acetate/formic acid (20/80/0.016, v/v/v) at a flow rate of 0.60 mL/min. Acquisition of mass spectrometric data was performed in multiple reaction monitoring mode, using the transitions of m/z 452-->344 for doxazosin enantiomers, and m/z 384-->247 for prazosin (internal standard). The method was linear in the concentration range of 0.100-50.0 ng/mL for each enantiomer using 200 microL of plasma. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) for each enantiomer was 0.100 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-assay precision was 5.0-11.1% and 5.7-7.6% for R-(-)-doxazosin and S-(+)-doxazosin, respectively. The accuracy was 97.4-99.5% for R-(-)-doxazosin and 96.8-102.8% for S-(+)-doxazosin. No chiral inversion was observed during the plasma storage, preparation and analysis. The method proved adequate for enantioselective pharmacokinetic studies of doxazosin after oral administration of therapeutic doses of racemic doxazosin.