Quantification of brodifacoum in plasma and liver tissue by HPLC.

A simple high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed for detection and quantification of brodifacoum in plasma and liver tissue. After adding difenacoum as the internal standard, brodifacoum and difenacoum are extracted from 2 mL of plasma with two sequential 10-mL volumes of acetonitrile-ethyl ether (9:1) and from 2 g of liver tissue by grinding the tissue with 10 mL acetonitrile. The extracts are evaporated to dryness under nitrogen, 2 mL of acetonitrile is added to reconstitute the residues, and the resulting solution is analyzed using reversed-phase chromatography and fluorescence detection. The limits of detection for plasma and tissue are 2 micrograms/L and 5 ng/g, respectively. Using internal standardization, the mean intra-assay recovery from plasma is 92% and the mean inter-assay recoveries is 109%. The mean intra-assay and inter-assay recoveries from tissue are 96%. No interferences were observed with any of the following related compounds: brodifacoum, bromadiolone, coumarin, difenacoum, diphacinone, warfarin, and vitamin K1.