Determination of ciramadol in plasma by gas-liquid chromatography

An analytical method for determining ciramadol concentrations in plasma was developed and evaluated for its specificity, precision, linearity, and sensitivity. GLC-electron capture detection of a dipentafluorobenzoyl derivative of the drug was used for quantitation. An isomer of the drug served as an internal standard. Resulting mean ratios of the peak height of derivatized drug to that of derivatized internal standard varied with a coefficient of variation that ranged from 3.8 to 11.1%. The mean ratio was linearly related to ciramadol content (8.75-175 ng) with a correlation coefficient greater than to 0.999. The minimum quantifiable concentration was 4 ng/ml with a 2-ml specimen. An application of this method is presented.