Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry
High-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry
(LC-MSMS) provides today's clinical laboratories with access to
more accurate and more relevant results.
LC-MSMS combines the benefits of two complementary techniques.
High performance liquid chromatography is used to fractionate the
samples into individual analytes and tandem mass spectrometry is
used to quantitate these analytes.
The fractionation stage is a major factor in the method's
excellent analytical specificity. It removes the ambiguity
associated with mass spectrometry when the technique is used to
analyze mixtures.
HPLC separates compounds out on the basis of
retention time. The MSMS process separates precursor ions on the
basis of their mass to charge ration (m/z), then following a
fragmentation stage there is a further separation of the product
ions, also by their m/z.