Liquid-phase microextration combined with liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry for detecting diuretics in urine

Trace amounts of diuretics were determined in human urine by hollow fiber liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) combined with liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) in this study. Chromatography was performed on a C8 reversed-phase column. A 25 μL n-octanol was used to extract analytes in urine. Extraction was optimized using a pH 2 solution spiked with 0.15 g/mL NaCl for 40 min at 40 °C with 1010 rpm stirring. The limits of detection of diuretics in urine were 0.3-6.8 ng/mL, and linearity range was 1-1000 ng/mL. Recoveries of spiked 50 ng/mL diuretics were 97.7-102.5%. The intra-day precision and inter-day precision were 3-18% and 4-21%, respectively. The diuretics concentration profiles in patient urine were also determined. The results of this study reveal the adequacy of LPME-LC-MS/MS method for analyzing diuretics in urine and quantification limits exceed World Anti-Doping Agency requirements.