Differential pulse amperometric detection of drugs in plasma using a dropping mercury electrode as a high-performance...

High-performance liquid chromatographic separation prior to reductive electrochemical determination at its dropping mercury electrode imparts specificity and sensitivity not attainable by conventional polarographic analysis of drugs and their metabolites. The utility of this novel approach is demonstrated by the analysis of chlordiazepoxide and its N-desmethyl metabolite in plasma which previously required thin-layer chromatographic separation prior to polarographic measurement. A mobile phase of methanol-isopropanol--0.0075 M acetate buffer, pH 3.5 (53:5:42), is used with the detector operated in the differential pulse mode at Ep = -0.820 V vs. Ag/AgCl. The response was linear (r = 0.998) in the concentration range of 0.05--2.0 micrograms/ml plasma for each component. The minimum detectability for each component under these conditions is 5.0 ng injected at a current range of 0.5 microamperemeter full scale. Techniques for oxygen removal and hydrodynamic consideration for the pumping system are presented.