High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of ganciclovir nucleotides in human myocardial tissue.

A method for the analysis of ganciclovir nucleotides in myocardial tissues was developed. The antiviral effect of ganciclovir is attributed to intracellular ganciclovir nucleotides. The procedure is based on perchloric acid deproteinization and enzymatic hydrolysis of the ganciclovir nucleotides to ganciclovir. Then, the parent drug was analyzed on a Hypersil ODS column using potassium dihydrogenphosphate buffer as mobile phase. The mean analytical recovery of ganciclovir from myocardial tissue was 101 +/- 2% and the detection limit was 2 pmol. The sample treatment procedure described is simple and presents a suitable analytical tool for the investigation of the ganciclovir nucleotides pool in tissues.