HPLC Determination of Valproic Acid in Human Serum Using Ultraviolet Detection

Abstract

A sensitive HPLC method with minimal sample preparation and good reproducibility for the determination of valproic acid in serum is described. Serum samples were precipitated using acetonitrile containing diazepam as the internal standard. Chromatography was performed on a Hewlett Packard model 1090 equipped with an octadecylsilane column and a Beckman model 163 variable wavelength detector. The drug and internal standard were eluted isocratically using a mobile phase consisting of 0.01M sodium phosphate monobasic solution, pH 2.3 and acetonitrile (63:37 v/v) followed by a gradient to flush the column before the next sample injection. The flow rate was 2.5 mL/min, the injection volume was 25 μL and the effluent was monitored at 210 nm. The serum standard curve was linear from 2.5-200.0 μg/mL with a correlation coefficient of 0.9994. Day-to-day precision for quality control samples (10.0, 25.0, 75.0 μg/mL serum) ranged from 5.6-9.6% CV. Possible interferences from other drugs which might be administered concurrently were studied. The method has been applied to the analysis of human serum samples.