title: Determination of the polar drug dimiracetam in human plasma and serum by column-switching high-performance liquid chromatography.
abstract: A sensitive and fully automated column-switching HPLC method was developed for the determination of a novel cognition enhancer, dimiracetam, in human plasma and serum. A sample of plasma was ultrafiltered and then directly injected onto a first mu Bondapak C18 column. The sample was eluted with water. The portion of the eluate (heart-cut) from this column containing the drug was selected and loaded on a second mu Bondapak C18 column and eluted with water. During the elution of the second column, the first column was automatically rinsed with water-acetonitrile (50:50, v/v) and then equilibrated for a new injection. The total analysis time for each sample was 35 min. This corresponded to a 30% decrease in analysis time compared with the time that would have been needed with a simple run with two mu Bondapak C18 columns assembled in series. Ultraviolet detection at 200 nm was used to monitor the eluate. The method was fully validated over the quantitation range 27 ng/ml-15 micrograms/ml. The applicability of the method was demonstrated by analysis of serum samples from a study performed in human healthy volunteers.
authors.affiliation: SmithKline Beecham Farmaceutici, Baranzate, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Torchio
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lombardi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Visconti
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Doyle
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007093:Imidazoles / Q000097:blood*; D011758:Pyrroles / Q000097:blood*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
chemical_list: D007093:Imidazoles; D011758:Pyrroles; C085079:dimiracetam