High-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of vigabatrin enantiomers in human serum by precolumn derivatization with o-phthaldialdehyde–N-acetyl--cysteine and fluorescence detection

A rapid and simple method is presented for the determination of vigabatrin enantiomers in human serum by high-performance liquid chromatography. Serum is deproteinized with trichloroacetic acid and aliquots of the supernatant are precolumn derivatized with o-phthaldialdehyde and N-acetyl--cysteine, resulting in the formation of diastereomeric isoindoles. Separation was achieved on a Spherisorb 3ODS2 column using a gradient solvent program and the column eluent is monitored using fluorescence detection. -Homoarginine was used as an internal standard. Within-day precisions (C.V.; n=8) were 2.8 and 1.1%, respectively, for the (R)-(−)- and (S)-(+)-enantiomer in serum containing 15.4 mg/l (RS)-vigabatrin. The method was linear in the 0–45 mg/l range for both enantiomers and the minimum quantitation limit was 0.20 mg/l for (R)-(−)-vigabatrin and 0.14 mg/l for (S)-(+)-vigabatrin. No interferences were found from commonly co-administered antiepileptic drugs and from endogenous amino acids. The method is suitable for routine therapeutic drug monitoring and for pharmacokinetic studies.