Capillary electrophoretic analyses of drugs in body fluids: sample pretreatment and methods for direct injection of biofluids.

A variety of strategies for the analysis of biological samples by capillary electrophoresis (CE) are described, with particular emphasis on the determination of drugs and metabolites. Analytical methods involving extensive sample pretreatment before CE analysis are considered, as well as strategies for directly injecting untreated biofluids. The application in CE of techniques common in liquid chromatography is first described, e.g. protein precipitation, liquid-liquid extraction and solid-phase extraction. On-capillary methods of sample concentration are considered. Approaches to performing CE assays of urine and plasma, without prior sample treatment, are described. The use of both capillary zone electrophoresis and micellar electrokinetic chromatography for direct-injection assays is compared for both urine and plasma analyses, and capillary washing strategies are discussed. Finally, direct-injection microanalyses are mentioned.