ABSTRACT
A new type of dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction is used for the determination of doxepin, citalopram, and fluvoxamine in aqueous matrices. This method is based upon the tandem utilization of dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction, and by providing a high sample clean-up, it efficiently improves the applicability of the method in complicated matrices. For this purpose, in the first step, the analytes contained in an aqueous sample solution (8.0 mL) were extracted into an organic solvent, and then these analytes were simply back-extracted into an aqueous acceptor phase (50 µL). The overall extraction time was 7 min, and very simple tools were required for this aim. Optimization of the variables affecting the method such as the type and volume of the organic solvent used and effect of ionic strength was carried out to achieve the best extraction efficiency. Under the optimized experimental conditions, tandem dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction with high-performance liquid chromatography and UV detection showed a good linearity in the range of 10-5000 ng/mL. The limits of detection were in the range of 3-10 ng/mL. The Intra-day precisions (relative standard deviation) were 9.2, 4.5, and 4.8, and the recoveries were 58.5, 52.9, and 39.3% for citalopram, doxepin, and fluvoxamine, respectively.
Subject(s)
Citalopram/isolation & purification , Doxepin/isolation & purification , Fluvoxamine/isolation & purification , Liquid Phase Microextraction , SolventsABSTRACT
A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with fluorimetric detection, which allows the simultaneous determination of plasma concentrations of four selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is presented. Fluvoxamine, paroxetine, sertraline, and fluoxetine were extracted from plasma with ethyl acetate and then derivatized with dansyl chloride. The analytes were separated using Hypersyl ODS C18 (5 microm) 250 x 4.6 mm column (ThermoQuest, Runcorn, UK). For continuous gradient separation, the mobile phase consists of two eluents, acetonitrile and potassium phosphate buffer (10 mmol/L, pH 7.2) at total flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. Detection was carried out at lambda exc = 366 nm and lambda em = 490 nm. The authors found recoveries of 90% to 95% for fluvoxamine, 94% to 100% for paroxetine, 88% to 95% for sertraline, 93% to 100% for fluoxetine, and 97% to 100% for internal standard (nortriptyline). Imprecision of the method ranged from 2.5% to 8.9%. The assay was linear from 10 to 1500 ng/mL for sertraline, and from 5 to 1500 ng/mL for the other drugs. The authors conclude that this method is suitable for monitoring antidepressant therapy. In addition, the authors report the effects of adding paroxetine to fluvoxamine on plasma levels in a group of patients in combined drug therapy.
