A HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC MICROANALYTICAL PROCEDURE FOR THE RAPID ESTIMATION OF PIRACETAM IN PLASMA OR CEREBROSPINAL-FLUID

Presently available GC and HPLC methods for analysis of piracetam, req uire large samples and suffer from interference. A micro scale, isocra tic high-performance liquid-chromatographic method is described for th e determination of piracetam in plasma (25 mu L) or cerebrospinal flui d (10 mu L) using ultraviolet absorbance at 215 nm. The limit of quant itation is 4 mu g mL(-1) and the within-batch and between-batch coeffi cients of variation are less than 10%. No interference from other comm only prescribed antimyoclonic or antiepileptic drugs was observed and thus the method can be used to monitor piracetam in patients on polyth erapy antimyoclonic or antiepileptic drug regimens. Because of the sen sitivity and rapidity of the method it is suitable for pharmacokinetic and mechanistic studies and for analysis of paediatric samples.