Aj. Beysens et al., DETERMINATION OF TACROLIMUS (FK-506) IN WHOLE-BLOOD USING LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY AND FLUORESCENCE DETECTION, Chromatographia, 39(7-8), 1994, pp. 490-496
A sensitive and selective liquid chromatographic method, using precolu
mn derivatization with dansylhydrazine followed by fluorescence detect
ion, has been developed for the determination of tacrolimus (FK 506) i
n whole blood. After haemolysis, whole blood samples are extracted wit
h diethyl ether and derivatized. After on-line removal of excess dansy
lhydrazine on a C-18 precolumn, the derivative is loaded on to a C-18
clean-up column, and a heart cut is subsequently transferred to a grap
hitized carbon column, where the final separation takes place. The met
hod requires 1 ml of sample and has a limit of quantitation of 3 ng/ml
. At the 15 ng/ml level the precision is ca 10 %, and the response is
linear from the limit of quantitation to ca 200 ng/ml of FK 506 in who
le blood. The capacity of the method is 50 samples/day and about 1000
1-ml samples can be analyzed without changing either clean-up or separ
ation column. Finally, the applicability of the method for therapeutic
drug monitoring is shown.