Microdetermination of procainamide in human serum.

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Procainamide is a crucial antiarrhythmic drug.
• Accurate quantification of procainamide in biological samples is essential for therapeutic drug monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a sensitive electron-capture gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) method for measuring procainamide in human serum.
• To assess the method's accuracy, precision, and potential interferences.

Main Methods:

• Serum samples were spiked with procainamide and an internal standard.
• Extraction with ethyl acetate followed by derivatization with pentafluoropropionic anhydride.
• Analysis using electron-capture GLC on a 5% OV-17 column.

Main Results:

• The method demonstrated high sensitivity, measuring procainamide in the range of 0.1-1 microgram/sample.
• Excellent precision was observed, with a coefficient of variation less than 5%.
• High correlation (r=0.985) was found when compared to a standard colorimetric method.

Conclusions:

• The developed electron-capture GLC method is accurate and precise for quantifying procainamide in human serum.
• This method is suitable for routine clinical analysis and therapeutic drug monitoring.
• The method is not affected by N-acetylprocainamide, a common metabolite.