Determination of potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium in total parenteral nutrition formulations by capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection

A simple method based on capillary electrophoresis with a capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detector (CE-C4D) was developed for the determination of potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium in parenteral nutrition formulations. A hydro-organic mixture, consisting of 100 mM Tris-acetate buffer at pH 4.5 and acetonitrile (80:20, v/v), was selected as the background electrolyte. The applied voltage was 30 kV, and sample injection was performed in hydrodynamic mode. All analyses were carried out in a fused silica capillary with an internal diameter of 50 μm and a total length of 64.5 cm. Under these conditions, complete separation between all cations was achieved in less than 4 min. The CE-C4D method was validated, and trueness values between 98.6% and 101.8% were obtained with repeatability and intermediate precision values of 0.4–1.3% and 0.8–1.8%, respectively. Therefore, this method was found to be appropriate for controlling potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium in parenteral nutrition formulations and successfully applied in daily quality control at the Geneva University Hospitals.