High-pressure liquid chromatographic method with postcolumn, in-line hydrolysis and fluorometric detection for indomethacin in biological fluids.

A rapid and sensitive method for the analysis of indomethacin in plasma and urine was developed using high-pressure liquid chromatography, postcolumn, in-line hydrolysis of indomethacin to a fluorophore, and detection of the fluorophore wih a fluorometer. The lower limit of detection was 1.5 ng/ml of plasma. The coefficient of variation at 30 ng/ml of plasma was 4.5% (n = 5). The nonconjugated metabolites of indomethacin, aspirin, and salicylate were resolved from indomethacin and the internal standard, alpha-methylindomethacin.