Bioanalysis of cisplatin analogues--a selective review

A variety of analytical procedures have been described for the determination of cisplatin and its analogues in biological fluids (plasma, plasma ultrafiltrate and urine), as well as in solid tissues. This paper attempts to review those methods which have been most commonly used in practice. These analytical methods may be conveniently divided into non-selective methods which detect only the platinum metal and selective methods which are capable of detecting the intact compounds. The non-selective methods include X-ray fluorescence, proton induced X-ray emission, flameless atomic absorption (FAA) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The latter method requires pre-column derivatization with diethyldithiocarbamate. The selective methods generally employ a fractionation step using HPLC followed by either on-line or off-line detection. Off-line detection by FAA requires the collection of fractions from the HPLC column and is somewhat tedious. On the other hand, sample preparation is minimal and biological fluids may be injected directly onto the column. The most sensitive HPLC methods for the determination of cisplatin and its analogues in biological fluids employ on-line electrochemical detection or post column derivatization with bisulphite.