An Improved Microanalytical Procedure for the Quantitation of Procainamide and N-Acetyl Procainamide in Serum by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method for analysis of procainamide (PA), and N-acetyl procainamide (NAPA) is presented. Sample preparation employs a simple base-acid double extraction procedure and analysis is carried out on a reverse phase chromatographic system using a μBondapak C₁₈ column and buffered aqueous acetonitrile as the mobile phase. The extraction procedure gives quantitative recovery of both PA and NAPA, and chromatographic results show that drug levels of as low as 0.3 mg per liter of serum can be conveniently analyzed without significant background interferences. The small volume (0.2 ml) of serum needed to perform an analysis makes this method suitable for pharmacokinetic studies in humans and animals as well as for clinical therapeutic drug monitoring studies.