[Determination of trimethoquinol in plasma by electrochemical detection after HPLC separation]

A high pressure liquid chromatographic method with internal analogue standardization for the determination of trimethoquinol (1-1-(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzyl)-6,7-dihydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoq uinoline hydrochloride) in plasma is described. The method comprises extraction from plasma at pH 9 with ethyl acetate, back-extraction into phosphoric acid and quantification after HPLC separation using a reverse phase by means of electrochemical (reductive) detection after electrochemical preoxidation. When using 5 ml plasma the lower limit of detection is 40 pg/ml. Under routine conditions the limit of determination is determined to be 0.1 ng/ml. The variation coefficients drop from about 7% in the low range to about 4% at 5 ng/ml. The determination of trimethoquinol is not impaired by its monomethylated metabolites.