Development and validation of a capillary electrophoretic method for the determination of amiodarone and desethylamiodarone

Summary A simple, sensitive and rapid capillary electrophoretic method has been developed for the separation and quantification of amiodarone and its metabolite, desethylamiodarone. The compounds were separated in a capillary of 45 cm effective length and 75 μm i.d., by use of an applied voltage of 25 kV and an electrolyte containing 15mm ADA buffer (pH 7.5), 10mm SDS, and 70% (v/v) acetonitrile. The selectivity, precision, linearity, range, sensitivity, and robustness of the method were good. The applicability of the assay was demonstrated by analyzing these drugs in serum. Electrokinetic injection with field-amplified sample-stacking was used to increase sensitivity. The limit of detection of the serum assay was 6.46 ng mL⁻¹ and the precision 3.7%.