The process involving liquid chromatography -
electrospray ionization -
tandem mass spectrometry relies on a vital step called «charge derivatization» or using a permanently charged reagent to selectively trap the estrogens and isolate them from the lipids and proteins that could interfere with estrogen detection, Schug said.
After
electrospray ionization, selected ion fragments were detected and quantified in the API4000 triple - quadrupole
tandem MSMS (Applied Biosystems / Sciex).