Determination of grepafloxacin in plasma samples by HPLC:: Application to clinical pharmacokinetic studies

A sensitive HPLC assay for the determination of grepafloxacin (GRE) in biological samples is described. Sample preparations were carried out by adding phosphate buffer (pH 7.4, 0.1M), followed by extraction with trichloromethane. GRE and the internal standard, enro-floxacin (ENR), were separated on a reversed-phase column using an aqueous phosphate solution-acetonitrile (78 : 22) mobile phase. The concentrations of ENR and GRE eluting of the column with retention times of 2.55, and 4.90 min, respectively were monitored by fluorescence at lambda(ex) 338 and lambda(em) 425 nm. The method was shown to be linear from 5 to 4000 ng mL(-1). The detection and quantitation limits were 5 and 10 ng mL(-1) respectively. Mean recovery was determined as 90%. Inter- and intra-assay precisions were 3.0% and 3.5% respectively. The method was applied to the determination of GRE in plasma samples collected during clinical pharmacokinetic studies.