Rapid determination of haloperidol and its metabolites in human plasma by HPLC using monolithic silica column and solid-phase extraction.

A rapid, sensitive and reproducible HPLC method was developed and validated for the analysis of haloperidol and its three main metabolites in human plasma. The analysis was carried out on a monolithic silica column (Chromolith Performance RP-18e, 100 x 4.6 mm). The mobile phase consisted of sodium phosphate (0.1 m, pH 3.5)-acetonitrile (80:20, v/v) at a flow rate of 2.0 mL/min. UV detection at 230 nm was used, with the detection limits of these compounds ranging from 2 to 5 ng. The separation factors of all studied compounds were in the range 2.30-16.32, while the resolution factors were from 1.00 to 5.37.