Quantitative determination of (-)-2'-deoxy-3'-thiacytidine (lamivudine) in human plasma, saliva and cerebrospinal fluid by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the quantitative determination of the HIV reverse transcriptase inhibitor lamivudine ((-)-2'-deoxy-3'-thiacytidine, 3TC, Epivir) in human plasma, saliva and cerebrospinal fluid is described. Lamivudine was extracted from samples using silica extraction columns prior to reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection at 270 nm. The method has been validated over the range of 10 (lower limit of quantitation) to 5000 ng/ml using a 0.5-ml sample volume. Between-day and within-day precisions ranged from 3.5 to 9.0%. The assay has been used for the quantitative analysis of lamivudine in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid of HIV-1 infected patients.