Capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence in clinical drugdevelopment - Routine application and future aspects

The clinical bioanalytical setting is characterized by sample volumes of <1 ml biological fluid (e.g. plasma, urine), a range of 3-4 decades of concen trations to be quantified and a limit of quantitation in the <mu>g/l-ng/l r ange for sets of 100-5000 individual samples. Setup of capillary electropho resis (CE) for routine application in this analytical field was successful for analytes accessible to fluorescence detection by using laser-induced fl uorescence (LIF) detection. Empowerment of CE-LIF for routine serial analys is of thousands of samples includes improvement in autosampler techniques, thorough procedures for capillary treatment and particularly more advanced detection technology. Introduction of multi-capillary systems with charge-c oupled device cameras and frequency doubled Ar-ion laser (lambda =257 nm) o ffers this technique the chance of superiority over classical analytical as says - especially in the field of (new) low volume samples e.g. capillary b lood or microdialysate encouraging clinicians to search for meaningful non- invasive samples. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.