HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF RITONAVIR INHUMAN PLASMA, CEREBROSPINAL-FLUID AND SALIVA

A simple, ion-pair high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed and validated for the quantitative determination of the HIV protease inhibitor ritonavir in human plasma, cerebrospinal fluid and saliva. Sample pretreatment consisted of precipitation of protein s with acetonitrile prior to high-performance liquid chromatography wi th ultraviolet detection at 239 nm. The method has been validated over the range of 50 ng/ml to 50 mu g/ml with use of 100-mu l volumes of s ample. The currently described assay has been used successfully for th e analysis of ritonavir in plasma, cerebrospinal fluid and saliva in H IV-1 infected patients. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.