Direct injection ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry for the high-throughput determination of etomidate and etomidate acid in wastewater

Etomidate (ET), a hypnotic agent used for the induction of anesthesia, is rapidly metabolized to etomidate acid (ETA) in the liver. Recently, ET has become one of the most serious alternative drugs of abuse in China. Therefore, an urgent need exists to develop a fast and convenient analysis method for monitoring ET. The current work presents a simple, fast, and sensitive direct injection method for the determination of ET and ETA in wastewater. After the optimization of the ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and sample filtration conditions, the method exhibited satisfactory limits of detection (1 ng/L) and good filtration loss. The validated method was successfully applied to determine the concentrations of ET and ETA in wastewater samples (n = 245) from several wastewater treatment plants in China. The concentrations of the targets in positive samples ranged from less than the lower limits of quantitation to 47.71 ng/L. The method can meet ET monitoring and high-throughput analysis requirements. HIGHLIGHT Etomidate (ET) use has spread rapidly, and it is now one of the most seriously abused substances in China. Our study first developed a simple, fast, and sensitive direct injection method for the quantitative determination of ET and etomidate acid in wastewater. After optimizing the UPLC–MS/MS and sample pretreatment conditions, the method was applied to authentic wastewater samples (n = 245) from several WWTPs in China.;