Advances in drug analysis by kinetic methods

Automatic kinetic methods are powerful tools for drug analysis as they use modern instrumentation and computers, which are essential for shortening analysis times and enhancing the quality of routine analyses. This paper reviews novel kinetic approaches to the determination of various types of drugs in bio(pharmaceutical) materials including the following: (a) a combination of the stopped-flow (SF) technique and fluorescence polarization immunoassay for the determination of drugs of abuse and opiates in urine; (b) the joint use of the SF technique and micelle-stabilized room-temperature phosphorimetry for the determination of anti-inflammatory drugs such as naproxen; (c) the use of sensitized luminescence by energy transfer processes for the kinetic determination of antibiotics such as tetracycline using the SF technique; and (d) the use of the continuous addition of reagent technique for determining hallucinogenic alkaloids and phenothiazines by peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence reactions. Other advances in drug analysis by kinetic methods involving kinetometric approaches (e.g. Kalman filtering) and the use of micellar catalysis are also discussed.