Solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography of torsemide and metabolites from plasma and urine.

Torsemide is a new diuretic drug with a profile of action similar to that of furosemide. The high potency of torsemide results in low dose therapy and causes problems for the pharmacokinetic study of the drug due to low plasma levels. Described here are methods for the analysis of torsemide and two metabolites in plasma and urine using solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography. The limits of quantitation are 10 ng/mL for plasma and 20 ng/mL for urine. The relative standard deviations for precision are less than 10% for most analytes at most concentrations in the calibration range. The recoveries from plasma were 94.3, 92.9, and 95.6%, and from urine were 77.5, 66.6, and 76.5% for torsemide and metabolites M1 and M5, respectively. The method was suitable for pharmacokinetic studies. Data from a normal volunteer are presented.