HPLC method for the simultaneous analysis of valproic acid and other common anticonvulsant drugs in human plasma or serum

Summary The derivatizing procedure of Moody et al. 20] for valproic acid has been simplified and applied to the simultaneous HPLC determination of valproic acid (VPA), barbital (B), primidone (PRM), phenobarbital (PB) and carbamazepine (CBZ) in serum or plasma of epileptic patients. The sample is deproteinized with acetonitrile containing esterification agents and an aliquot of the supernatant is heated to 70°C for 15 min with 4-bromophenacyl bromide. The reaction mixture is analysed on a C18 column at ambient temperature, with gradient elution and with detection at 205 nm. The time required for the chromatographic analysis is 13 min; identification is based on retention time and quantification is by peak area determination with an internal standard. The calibration curves show good linearity in the range 6.25 to 100 mg/L. The detection limits at a signal: noise ratio 3, ranged from 1 mg/L for B and CBZ to 2–3 mg/L for PRM, PB and VPA. The method described for the simultaneous determination of the five drugs in the same plasma pool, correlated well with isocratic HPLC methods specific for each drug. The simultaneous procedure described allows a reproducible (CVs6.5% within run) and rapid (25 min for sample preparation: 13 min for chromatographic run) therapeutic monitoring of patients treated with VPA and two or more antiepileptic drugs.