THE DETERMINATION OF TOTAL AND UNBOUND MIDAZOLAM IN HUMAN PLASMA - A COMPARISON OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY, GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY AND GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Midazolam concentrations in patients' plasma was determined after extraction with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). GC was selected for routine plasma assays in terms of selectivity, simplicity, precision, accuracy and sensitivity (0.02 μg/ml); HPLC analysis was less sensitive (0.1 μg/mL) than GC; GC/MS was used for analysis validation. Plasma protein binding of midazolam was determined by GC in patients' plasma after in vitro incubation with midazolam, ultrafiltration and extraction; 5% of the drug was unbound to plasma proteins. Midazolam distribution in lipoprotein fractions separated by ultracentrifugation of plasma obtained from patients on prolonged midazolam treatment was also assayed by GC. Copyright © 1990 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.