GC determination of prilocaine HCl in human plasma: Analytical application to real samples

A gas chromatographic (GC) method with a rapid and simple sample preparation was developed and validated for determination of prilocaine in human plasma. The validation parameters of linearity, precision, accuracy, recovery, specificity, limit of detection and limit of quantification were studied. The range of quantification for the GC method was 50-300 ng mL(-1) in plasma. Intra- and inter-day precision, expressed as the relative standard deviation (RSD) were less than 4.5%, and accuracy (relative error) was better than 8.0% (n = 6). The analytical recovery of prilocaine HCl from plasma has averaged 96.5% and the recovery of internal standard (lidocaine HCl) reached 96.8%. The limit of quantification (LOQ) and the limit of detection (LOD) of the method for plasma were 50 and 40 ng mL(-1), respectively. Also the developed and validated method was applied to three healthy volunteers to whom a local anaesthesia with citanest was administered.