High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of busulfan in plasma

Summary Busulfan (Myleran; 1,4-bis-(methanesulfonyloxy) butane; BU) is a bifunctional alkylating agent used in clinical practice since 1959. It is currently included at high doses in conditioning regimens for bone marrow transplantation, usually in combination with cyclo-phosphamide. A high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the determination of BU in plasma. The basis of the assay is a derivatization with sodium diethyldithiocarbamate at 32°C in the presence of 1-bromo-1-deoxy-3,6-anhydrogalactitol as internal standard. Analysis is performed on a cyano column with heptane-isopropanol-glacial acetic acid as mobile phase and UV detection at 280 nm. The calibration graph was linear in the concentration range 0.18–46.40 μM BU in plasma. The limit of detection was 0.1 μM. The precision and accuracy were between the limits required by good laboratory practice. Presented at Balaton Symposium on High-Performance Separation Methods, Siófok, Hungary, september 1–3, 1999