Ion-Paired Liquid Chromatographic Method for the Analysis of Pyridostigmine in Plasma

Abstract

A high performance Liquid chromatographic (HPLC) procedure for the analysis of pyridostigmine in plasma has been developed. Only 0.5 ml of plasma is required for the analysis. The clean-up procedure involves a protein precipitation step and a column elution step prior to separation by HPLC. The assay is quite sensitive with a detection limit of 1.37 ng/ml for pyridostigmine in plasma. Variability of results ranged from 3 to 14% on evaluations of assay precision. Accuracy of results, evaluated using blind samples in the range of 0–50 ng/ml, differed between 6 and 12% from blind sample values. Stability was also determined for pyridostigmine in plasma at ?20°C and ?80°C. The results showed no degradation for pyridostigmine at ?80°C for up to four months. In a preliminary study with one human volunteer, the drug could be detected up to 12 hours following oral syrup solution doses of between 0.4 and 0.9 mg/kg. This assay is suitable for pharmacokinetic studies involving pyridostigmine in human subjects.