Determination of four anabolic steroid metabolites by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry with negative ion chemical ionization and tandem mass spectrometry

A gas chromatography/mass spectrometry method is described which uses negative ion chemical ionization and tandem mass spectrometry for the determination of anabolic steroid metabolites. Four anabolic steroid metabolites to be derivatized by Pentafluoropropionic anhydride (PFPA) were determined using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) with negative chemical ionization (NCI) and NCI/MS/MS. The repeatability and reproducibility of this procedure were in the range of 5.3-9.7% and 6.1-10.2%, respectively. This method of derivatization with PFPA for NCI and NCI/MS/MS was useful to determine four metabolites of nandrolone, dromostanolone, methenolone and boldenone. The derivatized metabolites of boldenone could be detected to 2 ppb and the other three steroids could be detected to 25 ppb in urine at a signal-to-noise ratio of S/N = 3.