Bioanalysis of Naproxen by High Performance Reversed Phase Liquid Chromatography with Photometric and Fluorimetric Detection

Abstract

Methods for the quantitative determination of NAPROXEN and its main metabolite in plasma and urine are described. The separation is based on reversed phase liquid chromatography with LiChrosorb RP 8 (5 μm) as the support and methanol/phosphate buffer pH 7 as mobile phase, in some cases with addition of tetrabutyl ammonium ion as ion-pairing agent to improve the chromatographic selectivity. With UV-detector and a simple filter fluorometer an extraction-evaporation procedure is used for both plasma and urine determinations, while the high selectivity and sensitivity of a sophisticated fluorescence detector permits the direct injection of diluted samples on to the column. Use of an internal standard improves the within-run precision (s_rel%), which for plasma determinations of NAPROXEN are - with UV-detection, 0.2 – 1.7% (range 10 – 40 μg/ml), with filter fluorometer, 2.4 – 5.9% (range 12 – 58 μg/ml), and with fluorescence detector, 0.8 – 4.1% (range 5 – 20 μg/ml).