Comparison of liquid chromatography-microchip/mass spectrometry to conventional liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for the analysis of steroids.

The feasibility of a microfluidic-based liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization/mass spectrometric system (HPLC-Chip/ESI/MS) was studied and compared to a conventional narrow-bore liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization/mass spectrometric (LC-ESI/MS) system for the analysis of steroids. The limits of detection (LODs) for oxime derivatized steroids, expressed as concentrations, were slightly higher with the HPLC-Chip/MS system (50-300 pM) using an injection volume of 0.5 μL than with the conventional LC-ESI/MS (10-150 pM) using an injection volume of 40 μL.