Body fluid analysis of a phosphonic acid angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor using high-performance liquid chromatography and post-column derivatization with o-phthalaldehyde

A method is described for the extraction of a phosphonic acid angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor from either urine or plasma, and subsequent quantitation using high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) analysis and post-column o-phthalaldehyde reagent derivatization. The compound cannot be quantitatively extracted from the body fluids, but use of a fluorinated internal standard allowed for the computation of accurate results. With the use of an internal standard, excellent precision, linearity, and recovery were obtained for analyte response in both urine and plasma. In urine a working range of 0.2-10 micrograms/ml was found, with a limit of detection of 0.1 micrograms/ml. For plasma the working range was found to be 2-500 ng/ml, and the limit of detection was established as 1 ng/ml. Due to the non-polar character of the analyte at low pH values, it was possible to use novel extraction (solid-phase C8 column) and HPLC [poly(styrenedivinyl benzene) HPLC column] conditions to separate and quantitate the compound from plasma and urine.