HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC METHOD WITH COULOMETRIC DETECTION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF BUSPIRONE IN HUMAN PLASMA BY MEANS OF A COLUMN-SWITCHING TECHNIQUE

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method with e lectrochemical detection has been developed for the determination of b uspirone from human plasma. The separation was carried out by using a Supelcosil ABZ+plus C-18 reversed-phase column and 0.05 M potassium di hydrogenphosphate (pH 6.5)-acetonitrile (7:3, v/v) as the mobile phase . The compounds were detected by coulometry. Buspirone and the interna l standard were extracted from the human plasma using Bond-Elut C-18 s olid-phase extraction cartridges. Following removal of the highly lipo philic plasma components we applied a column-switching technique which reduced the duration of HPLC measurement from 60 min to 15 min. The l imit of quantitation was found to be 100 pg/ml plasma. (C) 1998 Elsevi er Science B.V.