Measurement of albuterol in guinea pig serum by high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

A sensitive, simple and reproducible high performance liquid chromatographi c method for detecting and quantifying albuterol in guinea pig serum is des cribed. A structurally related compound, bamethan, was used as an internal standard. The method employs ion-pair extraction with di(2-ethylhexyl)phosp hate followed by chromatography on a Zorbax SE C18 reversed-phase column. F luorescence detection was used to identify the compounds of interest. The c alibration curve was Linear between 1 and 50 ng/ mt albuterol hemisulfate s alt (0.83 and 41.50 ng/mL albuterol base), and the Limit of detection for a 1 mt sample was 1 ng/mL albuterol hemisulfate salt (0.83 ng/mL albuterol b ase). Serum levels of albuterol were quantified from guinea pigs that had r eceived the drug by continuous subcutaneous infusion at a dose of 0.2 mg/kg /day for 1, 5 or 10 days, or 10 days followed by a 24 h washout period. Cop yright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.