[Determination of ketoprofen in plasma using high-performance liquid chromatography. Comparison with gas--liquid...

A new method of determination of ketoprofen 2-(3-benzoyl phenyl) propionic acid in plasma using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is described. After extraction by diethyl either in acidic medium, ketoprofen and the internal standard, 2-(4-benzoyl phenyl) butyric acid, are methylated with gaseous diazomethane and their concentrations measured by HPLC using in LiChrosorb Si 60 (5 micrometer) column and dichloromethane-hexane (60:40) as the mobile phase. The absolute retention times of the internal standard and ketoprofen are 11.6 and 12.8 min, respectively. The precision of the methods is +/- 4% and the lower detection limit ranges from 0.06 to 0.10 microgram/ml. The results obtained by HPLC show a very good correlation with those obtained by gas--liquid chromatography. The proposed method is sensitive, reproducible and rapid and very suitable for ketoprofen determination in pharmacokinetic studies.