On-line dialysis-SPE-CE of acidic drugs in biological samples

A fully automated method is presented for the determination of acidic drugs in urine and serum using on-line dialysis-solid-phase extraction (SPE)-capillary electrophoresis (CE) with UV detection. With non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) as test compounds, detection limits in the biological samples were 0.05-1.0 microgram ml-1. Calibration plots were linear over two orders of magnitude and the within-day and between-day repeatability were better than 10%. The CE capillary and SPE column were used for over 500 analyses; the dialysis membrane was replaced after 250 analyses. A general protocol for dialysis-SPE-CE which can be used for amphoteric and acidic drugs was devised. The present results show that this protocol has general validity and can be recommended for future work on other classes of drugs.