High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of ethacrynic acid in human plasma.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of ethacrynic acid (EA) in human plasma is described. Plasma was prepared for analysis by addition of 4-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)-butyric acid as an internal standard followed by acidification with hydrochloric acid and extraction with ethyl acetate. Separation was by isocratic reversed-phase chromatography, the column effluent was monitored at 280 nm and quantitation was performed using peak-area ratios. The linear range for EA determination was from 0.5 to 25 micrograms/ml with a lower limit of detection of 0.1 microgram/ml. The reported method is convenient, sensitive and reproducible, illustrating its usefulness for pharmacokinetic studies.