Applications of column-switching technique in biopharmaceutical analysis. I. High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of amitriptyline and its metabolites in human plasma.

A new high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of amitriptyline and its metabolites, nortriptyline, 10-hydroxynortriptyline and 10-hydroxyamitriptyline, in plasma is described which uses direct injection and a column-switching valve. The method is based on the enrichment of drugs on a reversed-phase concentration column, packed with Corasil RP. The enriched drugs were then separated, using back-flush mode on a bonded-phase CN column using an isocratic acetonitrile-acetate buffer (60:40, v/v) mobile phase. The validation of the method showed excellent sensitivity, precision and reproducibility. The limit of detection, using a 250-microliter direct injection of plasma, was between 5 and 10 ng/ml for each of the four drugs. The mean coefficient of variation for intra- and inter-assay was better than 5%. The method showed obvious advantages over conventional extraction procedures in terms of speed and ease of sample handling. The method has been successfully applied to the samples from patients receiving oral doses of amitriptyline.