On-line low-level radiometric detection of [14C]remoxipride in liquid chromatographic effluents. Application to urine...

A method for on-line radiometric detection in liquid chromatography (LC) is described that permits the detection of low levels of radioactivity in LC effluents by using solvent segmentation and storage of the segmented effluent in a capillary storage loop. The object of the method is to make the flow-rate in the on-line radioactivity monitor (and hence the mean residence time in the monitor) independent of the separation process. Therefore, after storage of the complete chromatogram, the segmented effluent is led through the monitor at flow-rates that can be chosen according to the residence time desired for accurate and precise radioactivity determination. In this system, it is possible to use a flow-cell volume small enough to preserve the chromatographic integrity, while maintaining the possibility of increasing the counting time. Tests have been performed on the reproducibility of 14C detection and the influence of the flow-rate through the monitor on the standard deviation in 14C peak area and, thus, on the detection limit, using 14C-labelled remoxipride. As an application, analyses of urine samples for [14C]remoxipride and one of its potential metabolites are reported.