The on-line analysis of aerosol-delivered pharmaceuticals via single particle aerosol mass spectrometry.

The use of single particle aerosol mass spectrometry (SPAMS) was evaluated for the analysis of inhaled pharmaceuticals to determine the mass distribution of the individual active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in both single ingredient and combination drug products. SPAMS is an analytical technique where the individual aerodynamic diameters and chemical compositions of many aerosol particles are determined in real-time. The analysis was performed using a Livermore Instruments SPAMS 3.0, which allowed the efficient analysis of aerosol particles with broad size distributions and can acquire data even under a very large particle load. Data similar to what would normally require roughly three days of experimentation and analysis was collected in a five minute period and analyzed automatically. The results were computed to be comparable to those returned by a typical Next Generation Impactor (NGI) particle size distribution experiment.