Simultaneous determination of rivaroxaban and dabigatran levels in human plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

A sensitive and accurate liquid chromatography method with mass spectrometry detection was developed and validated for the quantification of dabigatran (Pradaxa(®)) and rivaroxaban (Xarelto(®)). (13)C6-dabigatran and (13)C6-rivaroxaban were used as the internal standard. A single-step protein precipitation was used for plasma sample preparation. This method was validated with respect to linearity, selectivity, inter- and intra-day precision and accuracy, limit of quantification and stability. The lower limit of quantification was 2.5ng/mL for both drugs in plasma.