Quantitation of Free Metanephrines in Plasma by Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

We describe here a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method to measure free metanephrines in plasma. Free metanephrine and normetanephrine are extracted via solid-phase extraction. After extraction and evaporation, the reconstituted supernatant is analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The MS/MS is set to selective reaction monitoring mode (180.1 → 148.1 m/z for metanephrine, 183.1 → 168.1 for d3-metanephrine, 166.1 → 134.1 m/z for normetanephrine, and 169.1 → 137.2 m/z for d3-normetanephrine) with positive electrospray ionization. Quantitation is based on peak area ratio of the analyte to its respective deuterated internal standard. The assay is linear from 5.9 to 4090.0 pg/mL for metanephrine and 22.0 to 4386.7 pg/mL for normetanephrine with precision of <6 % over the ranges.
Source: Springer protocols feed by Imaging/Radiology - Category: Radiology Source Type: news