[Determination of atracurium and laudanosine in dog plasma during cardiopulmonary bypass by high performance liquid chromatography with fluorometric detection].

A high performance liquid chromatographic method coupled with fluorometric detection has been developed for the determination of atracurium and its major metabolite laudanosine in dog plasma. The separation of atracurium and laudanosine was performed on an Agilent Eclipse Plus C18 column, and the mobile phase consisted of 0.03 mol/L dipotassium hydrogen phosphate and acetonitrile (72: 28, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. Verapamil was used as the internal standard. The sample was extracted by dichloromethane, concentrated and dissolved in the mobile phase. The detection is performed at 240 nm for excitation and 320 nm for emission. The results showed that the linear concentration ranges of the calibration curve were 25 - 5 000 microg/L for atracurium (r = 0.999 0), and 25 - 6 000 microg/L for laudanosine (r = 0.9984). The recoveries were 92.1% - 109.5%. The limits of detection were 3 microg/L for atracurium and 1 microg/L for laudanosine. The RSDs of intra-day and inter-day were less than 10%. The stability tests under various conditions have been performed. The method is specific, sensitive and accurate in the determination of atracurium and laudanosine, and also can be used for the pharmacokinetic investigations of atracurium and laudanosine in plasma.