Determination of trazodone in serum by instrumental thin-layer chromatography.

A simple and specific method for trazodone that uses high-performance thin-layer chromatography (TLC) plates for chromatography and the Camag TLC Scanner for fluorescence-reflectance measurements is described. The quantitative method employs quinidine as an internal standard and the calibration line is linear between 0.2 and 2.0 mg/L serum, the usual range encountered in patients treated with the drug. Replicate analyses of single serum specimens demonstrated reproducibility of better than +/- 3% coefficient of variation for concentrations of trazodone in the midrange of the test line.