Quantitative analysis of tiamenidine in human plasma by gas chromatography mass spectrometry of a dibenzyl derivative.

A gas chromatography mass spectrometry method has been developed and evaluated for the quantitative analysis of tiamenidine in plasma. Tiamenidine and internal standard are extracted from basified plasma, converted to dibenzyl derivatives by reaction with benzyl bromide and potassium t-butoxide in the presence of 18-crown-6 ether prior to analysis by selected ion monitoring. The method can be used over the range 0.2--10 ng ml-1 with a coefficient of variation of better than 20% at 1 ng ml-1.