HPLC determination of diltiazem in human plasma and its application to pharmacokinetics in humans

A simple and sensitive reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatographic method (HPLC) has been developed and validated for the routine analysis of diltiazem in human plasma and the study of the pharmacokinetics of the drug in the human body. Diltiazem and diazepa (internal standard) were extracted with a mixed organic solution of hexane, chloroform and isopropanol (60:40:5, v/v/v), and then HPLC separation of the drugs was performed on an Spherisorb C(18) column and detected by ultraviolet absorbance at 239 nm. The use of methanol-water solution (containing 2.8 mm triethylamine, 80:20, v/v) as the mobile phase at a fl ow-rate of 1.2 mL/min enables the baseline separation of the drugs free from interferences with isocratic elution. The method was linear in the clinical range 0-300 ng/mL and the lower limit of detection of diltiazem in plasma was 3 ng/mL. The range of percentage of relative standard deviation (%RSD) was from 3.5 to 6.8% for within-day analyses and from 6.2 to 8.4% for between-day analyses, respectively. The extraction recoveries of diltiazem from spiked human plasma (n = 5) at three concentrations were 91.4-104.0%. The method has been used to determine diltiazem in human plasma samples from eight volunteers who had taken diltiazem hydrochloride slow release tables and the data obtained was fitted with a program on computer to study the pharmacokinetics. The results showed that the peak level in plasma approximately averaged 118.5 +/- 14.3 ng/mL at 3.1 +/- 0.4 h, and the areas under the drug concentration curves (AUC) was 793.1 +/- 83.1 ng.h/mL.