Sensitive Determination in Plasma of Imipramine and Desipramine by High Performance Liquid Chromatography Using Electrochemical Detection

Abstract

A sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic method, using electrochemical detection, has been developed for the analysis of both imipramine and desipramine in plasma.

This involved many n-hexane-isoamyl alcohol extractions, in the presence of an internal standard (trimipramine). Analysis was performed by isocratic elution with 27 % 0.01M potassium dihydrogen phosphate, 40 % acetonitrile, 33 % methanol, with the pH adjusted to 9, on a Nucleosil 5 μm, CN column, with electrochemical detection at + 0.9 Volt.

The limit of sensitivity of the assay was 1.0 ng/ml. The method was applied to a single dose (7 5 mg) pharmacokinetic study of imipramine, in healthy volunteers, with a good accuracy (95-105 %) and precision (less than 11.5 %).