LC-MS Matrix Effect, Recovery & Process Efficiency Calculator

Separate ion suppression from extraction loss with the three-set (A, B, C) design.

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A: neat solution, analyte area

B: post-extraction spike, analyte area

C: pre-extraction spike, analyte area

A: internal standard area

B: internal standard area

Example: one QC level. Repeat with at least six lots of matrix, as ICH M10 requires.

Matrix factor–

IS-normalised MF–

Recovery–

Process efficiency–

MF = B/A · IS-normalised MF = (B/B_IS)/(A/A_IS) · Recovery = C/B · Process efficiency = C/A

How it works

The approach published by Matuszewski and colleagues compares three sets of samples: analyte in neat solvent (A), blank matrix extract spiked after extraction (B), and matrix spiked before extraction (C). B/A isolates the effect of co-eluting matrix on ionisation, C/B isolates extraction recovery, and C/A combines them.

A stable-isotope-labelled internal standard that co-elutes with the analyte usually corrects most of the matrix effect, which shows up as an IS-normalised matrix factor close to 1. ICH M10 evaluates matrix effect with at least six sources of matrix, with accuracy within ±15% and precision ≤ 15%.