COMPARISON BETWEEN GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY ATOMIC-EMISSION DETECTION AND GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY FOR THE ASSAY OF PROPOFOL

Quantitation by gas chromatography-atomic emission detection (GC-AED) is based on the intensity of the signal measured at a wavelength chara cteristic of an element, after atomisation by the plasma. This respons e depends only on the number of atoms of this element present in the m olecule under investigation, and is independent of the structure of th e molecule. This technique was used for the assay of propofol, and the estimation of its two metabolites, after calibration with standard so lutions of pure propofol. The results were compared with those obtaine d by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Propofol was quanti fied with higher precision and accuracy by GC-AED than by GC-MS which exhibited larger residual values. Concentration assessment for two met abolites showed a better agreement with the theoretical value by GC-AE D since the response depends only on the number of carbon atoms in eac h molecule.