Interference by p-hydroxyphenobarbital in the 125I-radioimmunoassay of serum and urinary phenobarbital

A radioimmunoassay for barbiturates is shown to be equally sensitive to phenobarbital and its major urinary metabolite, p-hydroxyphenobarbital, in serum and urine. Interference by the metabolite can be essentially eliminated by selectively extracting phenobarbital into chloroform. The extraction efficiency of the method for phenobarbital was 93+/-2% (SD) over the concentration range studied. Although cross reactivity between barbiturates and their metabolites may be less important in determining cases of barbiturates abuse or overdose, it may be extremely important if data on serum or urine are required for accurate estimates of drug disposition, or in establishing dose/response relationships.