Current developments and future trends in solid-phase microextraction techniques for pharmaceutical and biomedical analyses.

Sample preparation is important for the isolation and concentration of desired trace components from complex matrices. Sample preparation is the most labor-intensive and error-prone process in analytical methodology, and greatly influences the reliable and accurate determination of analytes. The integration of sample preparation with various analytical instruments is most conveniently achieved by using microextraction techniques and/or microdevices. Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is both simple and effective, enabling miniaturization, automation and high-throughput performance. Moreover, SPME has reduced analysis times, as well as the costs of solvents and disposal. This review describes current developments and future trends in novel SPME techniques, including fiber SPME, in-tube SPME and related new microextraction techniques. Especially innovative SPME approaches, including multi-well high-throughput sampling, ligand-receptor binding study for pharmacokinetics, direct in vivo sampling, chip-based microfluidic system, and new sampling techniques using intelligent carbon nanotube and temperature-response polymer in pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis are focused items.