There has been an increasing level of interest in liquid chromatography/mass spec￾trometry (LC/MS) for lipid analysis as the number of commercially available instru￾ments having atmospheric pressure ionization (API) interfaces has increased. As
prices on LC/MS instruments having API sources have come down, the number of
instruments installed in labs worldwide has burgeoned. Articles in the literature have
now described extensive use of electrospray ionization (ESI) and atmospheric pres￾sure chemical ionization (APCI) for analysis of most classes of lipids. The benefits
of these API sources for lipid analysis are becoming widely recognized. It is this
growing interest in modern API techniques for lipid analysis that has precipitated
publication of this volume.