The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 25, 2012
Filed:
May. 28, 2008
Armin Holle, Achim, DE;
Armin Holle, Achim, DE;
Bruker Daltonik GmbH, Bremen, DE;
Abstract
The invention relates to spatially resolved mass spectrometric measurement and visualization of the distribution of small molecules in a mass range from approximately 150 to 500 Daltons, for example drugs and their metabolites, in thin sections or other two-dimensional samples, preferably with ionization of the molecules by matrix-assisted laser desorption. The invention includes the steps measuring a daughter ion produced by forced decomposition of the molecular ion instead of the ionized analyte molecule itself, the daughter ion having a much better signal-to-noise ratio. The daughter ions are detected in a relatively simple reflector time-of-flight mass spectrometer instead of using an expensive time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometers for the measurement of the daughter ions. Advantageously, substantially faster and less expensive scanning of the thousands of mass spectra which serve as the basis for visualizing the spatial distribution of the analyte molecule is achieved, while the mass resolution and sensitivity are at least equally good.