Sample type nontrace/pure

Figure 1.1 Structure analysis matrix that illustrates pharmaceutical analysis preferences for four specific sample types nontrace/pure nontrace/ mixture trace/pure and trace/mixture. (Courtesy of Milestone Development Services, Newtown, Pa., USA.)...

Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS)-based techniques provide unique capabilities for pharmaceutical analysis. LC/MS methods are applicable to a wide range of compounds of pharmaceutical interest, and they feature powerful analytical figures of merit (sensitivity, selectivity, speed of analysis, and cost-effectiveness). These analytical features have continually improved, resulting in easier-to-use and more reliable instruments. These developments coincided with the pharmaceutical industry s focus on describing the collective properties of novel compounds in a rapid, precise, and quantitative way. As a result, the predominant pharmaceutical sample type shifted from nontrace/pure samples to trace mixtures (i.e., protein digests, natural products, automated synthesis, bile, plasma, urine). The results of these developments have been sig-... 

---