Determination of prostaglandin E2, prostaglandin F2 alpha and 6-oxo-prostaglandin F1 alpha in urine by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry: a comparison.

Electron impact fragmentation of methyl ester/methyloxime/trimethylsilyl ether derivatives of prostaglandin E2 and 6-oxo-prostaglandin F1 alpha and the methyl ester/trimethylsilyl ether derivative of prostaglandin F2 alpha is followed by argon collision-activated dissociation in a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Daughter ion chromatograms of prostaglandin derivatives show an enormous increase of selectivity compared to the multiple ion detection chromatograms of the same samples in single quadrupole mode.