Liquid chromatography with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric detector for simultaneous determination of gold drug metabolites and related metals in human blood

Abstract

The use of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for the analysis of blood samples from rheumatoid arthritis patients on gold drug therapy is demonstrated. Flow injection allows the determination of multiple metal ions (Au, Zn and Cu) in a single injection with detection limits that are more than adequate for the analysis. Matrix effects are significant with these samples. Chromatography is also possible with ICP-MS as the detector. Examples are given of high-performance liquid chromatography of patient blood samples using size-exclusion and weak anion-exchange columns.