A specific and sensitive method for the determination of the anticoagulant phenprocoumon in plasma

A specific thin-layer chromatographic assay for phenprocoumon has been developed with a sensitivity of 5 ng/ml of plasma, using only 0.2 ml. This sensitivity is more than 20 times higher than that of the published methods. The drug is extracted from acidified plasma, an aliquot of the extract is applied to a silica-gel thin-layer plate and separated from interfering substances. The quantity of phenprocoumon is determined by fluorescence densitometry in situ. The standard deviation of the whole procedure is less than +/- 3%. The new procedure permits pharmacokinetic studies with low doses of phenprocoumon to be performed on volunteers. Furthermore, due to the high sensitivity of the method, it is possible to determine the free drug fraction of this highly protein-bound substance in the plasma of patients. It was shown that, in the therapeutic concentration range, phenprocoumon is bound by about 99.5% to the plasma proteins. Since the assay is simple and quick to perform, a large series of plasma samples can be analysed without any problems.