Capillary electrophoresis determination of diatrizoic acid and its impurities in diatrizoate radiopaque solutions

A capillary electrophoresis method has been developed for the separation and determination of diatrizoic acid (DTZA) and its four mono- and diiodo degradation products (2-iodo,4-iodo, 2,4-diiodo, and 2,6-diiodo-3,5-diacetamidobenzoic acid) in radio-paque solution for injection (RSI). DTZA and its degradants were assayed in suitable dilutions without pretreatment. Optimum conditions included the use of low-pressure sample injection (6 s), sample and standard solutions with a molarity less than that of the separation buffer, and adjustment of the buffer molarity to obtain a current of 50 μA at a constant 15kV separation voltage. After each six runs or less, the inlet and outlet buffer were replaced with more buffer from the same batch. When the method was applied to a sample of SI levels of 5–10 mg/ml were found for each of the mono and diiodo impurities. The optimum method showed a precision (peak area measurement) in the range 1.7–7.2% RSD, depending on the concentration. A linear correlation coefficient of 0.997 was obtained over a DTZA concentration range of 5–60 mg/mL.