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Hair analysis of flecainide for assessing the individual drug-taking behavior
Yoshiharu Takiguchi1, Rie Ishihara, Mayumi Torii
1Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokushima, 1-78 Sho-machi, Tokushima 770-8505, Japan. takiguti@ph2.tokushima-u.ac.jp
Objective:
The concentration of flecainide in hair was measured to determine its value as an index of individual drug-taking history.
Methods:
Hair samples obtained from 15 patients treated with flecainide for more than 1 month were cut into 1-cm-long portions successively from its scalp end. The concentration of flecainide in each hair portion was measured using high-performance liquid chromatography.
Results:
Flecainide was detected in the 1-cm-long hair portion at the scalp end in the concentration range of 38.0-411.9 ng x mg(-1), which significantly correlated with the area under the plasma flecainide concentration versus time curve. The axial centimeter-by-centimeter distribution of flecainide along the hair shaft well reflected the individual history of drug use.
Conclusion:
The present study suggests the usefulness of determining flecainide in hair to provide retrospective information on the individual drug-taking behavior qualitatively.