SENSITIVE METHOD FOR THE ASSAY OF SERTINDOLE IN PLASMA BY HIGHPERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY AND FLUOROMETRIC DETECTION

A simple and highly sensitive normal-phase HPLC method is described for determining sertindole concentrations in human plasma using fluorimetric detection. A short C-8 column was used to extract sertindole and the internal standard from plasma; the column was rinsed with acetonitrile, and the analytes were recovered by elution with methanol. This uncommon selectivity between the two solvents allowed clean extraction and near- quantitative recovery of the analytes (> 89%). Separation was done on a 5-mu m silica-gel column and detection was performed by fluorimetry, with emission at 340 nm and excitation at 260 nm. The detection and lower quantifiable limits were 0.01 and 0.025 ng/ml, respectively, with no interference from plasma or potential metabolites.