High-speed liquid chromatographic determination of antiepileptic drugs in human plasma

A high-speed liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous determinations of diphenylhydantoin, phenobarbital and carbamazepine in human blood plasma is presented. This method involves two step extraction procedures with chloroform and uses 2 X 50 cm long stainless steel columns packed with a anion exchange resin, with a mobile phase of 4 mM ammonium phosphate buffer solution, pH 6.2 at a flow rate of 0.40 ml/min. The results presented show linear calibration curves and quantitative determinations as low as 1.0 mug of each drug added to 0.5 ml plasma. This method has a sensitivity sufficient to detect human plasma levels after therapeutic clinical doses.