Gas chromatographic determination of ifosfamide in microvolumes of urine and plasma.

In oncology, particularly in pediatric malignancies, high doses (5-10 g/m2) of the oxazaphosphorine ifosfamide play an important role in the treatment of sarcomas. Pharmacokinetic data of ifosfamide and its metabolites in these cases are scanty. Considering the special demands of the determination of ifosfamide in plasma of young children, a very sensitive capillary gas chromatographic method, requiring only 50 microliters of plasma, has been developed. This bioanalysis of ifosfamide shows good linearity and accuracy in the concentration range 10 ng to 100 micrograms per ml of plasma and 25 ng to 1 mg per ml of urine. The absolute limits of detection in plasma and urine are 2 ng/ml and 5 ng/ml, respectively. The stability of various solutions of ifosfamide and trofosfamide was tested and proved to be satisfactory, except for ifosfamide in plasma and urine kept in the refrigerator. The validity of the method for pharmacokinetic purposes is shown in the case of one patient.