High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of doxorubicin in tissues after solid phase extraction.

A method is described for the determination of doxorubicin in tissues. The drug was selectively extracted from the biological matrix by solid phase extraction using 1-ml octadecyl silane extraction columns. Prior to extraction, tissue samples were digested by an enzymic digestion procedure. Daunorubicin was used as an internal standard. Quantitation was by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using ion-pair chromatography on a reversed-phase column. Detection was by fluorescence. Recovery of doxorubicin from tissue was 81.7 +/- 2.1% mean +/-SD. Doxorubicin concentrations as low as 0.01 mg kg(-1) could be determined. A typical value of the relative standard error of measurement was 3.7% at 2.1 mg kg(-1).