Simplified liquid-chromotographic analysis for cyclosporin A, and comparison with radioimmunoassay

We describe a simplified isocratic "high-performance" liquid-chromatographic method for measuring a new immunosuppressive drug, cyclosporin A, in biological fluids with use of its analogs cyclosporin C and cyclosporin D as internal standards. The method is reproducible and accurate and appears to be specific for cyclosporin A; the detection limit is 31 micrograms/L. The chromatographic measurements of the concentration of cyclosporin A in serum of patients receiving the drug were invariably lower than those by radioimmunoassay and the difference became more pronounced the greater the period of time after dosing. Because measurements of cyclosporin A in serum standards were almost identical with both techniques, the differences between the two sets of results for patients' samples suggests that the radioimmunoassay is nonspecific and measures metabolites of cyclosporin A.