Gas chromatography with nitrogen-selective detection of metoprolol from human plasma after reaction with phosgene

A method for the determination of therapeutic levels of metoprolol in human plasma is presented. Metoprolol and the internal standard are extracted from the buffered plasma sample to an organic phase containing 4 x 10^?3M phosgene. After 10 min the organic phase is taken to dryness. The residue is dissolved in ethyl acetate and the formed oxazolidine derivatives are analyzed by gas chromatography with nitrogen-selective detection. With packed columns, rectilinear standard curves through the origin were obtained down to 80 nmoles/l of plasma. The precision of the method at 200 nmoles/l was 1.5% (n = 8). The sensitivity of the method was improved by using capillary column gas chromatography. Linear standard curves were obtained down to 10 nmoles/1 of metoprolol in plasma. The precision of the method at the 50 nmoles/1 level was 2.2% (n = 7). With this simple and straightforward method using extractive derivatization 30 samples can be handled in a day.