Easily accessible biological fluids (blood, plasma, blood cells, cerebrospinal fluid, urine, etc.) generally do not reflect drug concentrations at their site of action or in the target tissue. In order to be able to determine distribution as well as concentration in the target tissue (human tissues after surgical interventions, tumors, tissues from animal studies), methods for mass spectrometric surface analysis are used in addition to LC-MS/MS analyses. These include techniques such as DESI (Direct Electrospray Ionization) and MALDI (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization) coupled with high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (QToF) to ideally provide images of drug distribution in the target tissue (mass spectrometric imaging).

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