A simple, sensitive liquid chromatographic assay of cis-thiothixene in plasma with coulometric detection

A novel, simple, and very sensitive liquid-chromatographic assay with a coulometric detector has been developed for quantitating cis-thiothixene (CTX) in human plasma. A reverse phase, 5-microns cyano column (25 x 0.46 cm), a mobile phase of phosphate buffer (pH 2.5) and acetonitrile (40/60 by vol), and a coulometric detector are used for the separation of CTX, and the internal standard, trifluoperazine. CTX and trifluoperazine are extracted from alkalinized plasma into n-pentane-isopropanol (95/5 by vol) and purified by back extraction into perchloric acid. The optimum oxidation potential for the analytes is +0.8 V versus an Ag/AgCl electrode. The detection limit for CTX is 200 pg using 1 mL of plasma and CTX concentrations are linear from 0 to 40 micrograms/L. The average interassay CV is 9%, and the mean recovery is 99% relative to the internal standard. Possible interferences from various psychiatric and common drugs in the assay have been studied. The assay method was validated by determining the concentration of CTX in the plasma of 100 schizophrenic patients.