Sensitive determination of the phosphodiesterase III/IV inhibitor zardaverine in human serum by direct sample injection, automated precolumn clean-up and high-performance liquid chromatography.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method is described for the determination of the phosphodiesterase III/IV inhibitor zardaverine in serum by using fully automated clean-up of large-volume serum samples on a semi-preparative-scale precolumn followed by chromatography on two analytical columns operated with two different solvent systems. The switching of the analytical columns provides the necessary specificity and sufficient sensitivity for UV detection is obtained by the sample volume. The method was shown to give nearly quantitative recovery, allowing the use of external standard quantification. Good precision and linearity within the concentration range 1-50 ng/ml could be demonstrated. The method is suitable for routine measurements in support of kinetic studies of zardaverine in man.