Sensitive determination of phenothiazines in body fluids by gas chromatography with surface ionization detection

Fourteen phenothiazine derivatives were tested for their detection by gas chromatography (GC) with surface ionization detection (SID). The sensitivity of GC-SID was highest with trimeprazine and levomepromazine, which contain aliphatic tertiary amino side chains, and lowest with thiethylperazine and thioproperazine, which contain sulphur residues. Chlorpromazine, trimeprazine and promazine showed excellent linearity between the SID response and the drug amount in the range 0.25-3.0 pmol on-column. Their detection limits were as low as ca. 5-10 pg (15-30 fmol) on-column (250-500 pg per ml of body fluid). A detailed procedure for isolation of phenothiazines from human whole blood and urine using Sep-Pak C18 cartridges, before the GC with SID, is also presented. The recoveries of the drugs (100 pmol), which were added to 1 ml of whole blood or urine, were more than 79%. The baselines remained steady as the column temperature was increased.