Determination of midodrine in human plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection.

A simple and sensitive fluorometric high-performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the determination of midodrine in human plasma. After liquid-liquid extraction from plasma, the drug and 2-phenylglycinol (internal standard) were convened into the corresponding fluorescent derivatives by reaction with 3,4-dihydro-6,7-dimethoxy-4-methyl-3-oxoquinoxaline-2-carbonyl chloride, a fluorescence derivatization reagent for amines. The derivatives were separated within 30 min on a reversed-phase column using isocratic elution with acetonitrile-methanol-water (10:30:60, v/v) and were detected spectrofluorometrically at 485 nm with excitation at 400 nm. The detection limit for midodrine was 0.3 pmol (76 pg) per mL plasma at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3.