Determination of naltrexone and 6 beta-naltrexol in plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography with coulometric detection.
A simple and reliable reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method with coulometric detection is described for the quantitation of naltrexone and its metabolite, 6 beta-naltrexol, in plasma samples of healthy volunteers who received orally 50 mg of naltrexone. The analytes and the internal standard, naloxone, are extracted with an octadecyl solid-phase extraction column before chromatography. The mobile phase is 0.01 M potassium phosphate (pH 3)-acetonitrile (85:15, v/v) and it is pumped at 0.8 ml/min. The coulometric detector is formed by two electrodes set at +0.20 V and +0.70 V, with a palladium reference electrode. The limit of quantitation observed was 5 ng/ml for both naltrexone and 6 beta-naltrexol. This method can be used to investigate pharmacokinetic parameters of different pharmaceutical preparations of this opioid antagonist.
Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
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Zuccaro
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Altieri
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Betto
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Pacifici
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Ricciarello
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Pini
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Pichini
D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D004563:Electrochemistry; D006801:Humans; D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D009271:Naltrexone / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000097:blood* / Q000652:urine; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction
D007202:Indicators and Reagents; C010410:6 beta-hydroxynaltrexone; D009271:Naltrexone