High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Analysis of Desipramine in Human Plasma Using a Microbore Column Technique

Abstract

A reversed-phase, isocratic HPLC method has been developed for the quantitation of desipramine in human plasma. the method involved the use of cloimpramine as an internal standard. the chromatographic separation was accomplished with a mobile phase comprising acetonitrile-aqueous solution (60:40. v/v) containing 10 mM disodium hydrogenphosphate and 80 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate adjusted to pH 2. the mobile phase was pumped at a flow rate of 0.5 ml/min. the column used was a microbore column (2 mm I.D. × 100 mm) packed with a C18 reversed-phase material (5μm ODS Hypersil). Plasma samples were extracted at basic pH with diethyl ether followed by back-extraction into 0.1 N sulfuric acid. Using UV detection at 250 nm, the lower limit of sensitivity was 10 ng/ml. the inter- and intra-assay coefficients of variation were found to be less than 10%. the assay procedure was applied to a long term oral dosing study in patients to monitor the plasma concentration of desipramine.