High performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometric determination of balofloxacin in human plasma and its pharmacokinetics.

A selective and sensitive high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation-mass spectrometry method has been developed for the determination of balofloxacin (BLFX) in human plasma. The sample preparation was a liquid-liquid extraction, and chromatographic separation was achieved with an Agilent ZORBAX 300SB C18 2.1 mm x 150 mm column using a mobile phase comprised of methanol-water (10 mM CH(3)COONH(4), pH 3.0)=40:60 (v/v). Standard curves were linear (r=0.9992) over the concentration range of 0.03-3 microg/ml and had good accuracy and precision. The within- and between-batch precisions were within 10% relative standard deviation (R.S.D.). The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.02 microg/ml. The validated HPLC-electrospray ionization (ESI)-MS method has been used successfully to study balofloxacin pharmacokinetics in healthy volunteers.