Simultaneous determination of viloxazine, venlafaxine, imipramine, desipramine, sertraline, and amoxapine in whole blood: comparison of two extraction/cleanup procedures for capillary gas chromatography with nitrogen-phosphorus detection.

A comparative study for the simultaneous gas chromatographic (GC) resolution and detection of the six antidepressants viloxazine, venlafaxine, imipramine, desipramine, sertraline, and amoxapine in whole blood at concentration levels of 100-2000 ng/mL was developed. Two extraction/cleanup analytical procedures were compared regarding their recovery, precision, sensitivity and matrix purification efficiency. The first procedure consists of the employment of Chem Elut columns (diatomaceous earth) and is based on the principle of liquid-solid absorption extraction that is closely related to conventional liquid-liquid extraction. The second focuses on the use of Bond Elut Certify columns and a mixed SPE, reversed-phase and cation-exchange sorbent, more recently developed for the market. Each procedure required 2.0 mL of whole blood extraction and injection into a capillary GC equipped with a nitrogen-phosphorus detector. Mepivacaine was used as the extraction standard (surrogate), and prazepam was used as the chromatographic standard. No interferences were found, and the time for the chromatographic analysis was 16 min for one sample. Recoveries of the compounds using Chem Elut columns at 500 ng/mL were in the range of 28-74% with intra-assay and interassay precisions of less than 7% and 19%, respectively. Limits of detection (LOD) and quantitation (LOQ) ranged from 39 to 153 ng/mL and from 128 to 504 ng/mL, respectively. Recoveries of the compounds using Bond Elut Certify columns at 500 ng/mL were in the range of 64-86% with intra-assay and interassay precisions of less than 4% and 10%, respectively. LODs and LOQs ranged from 21 to 100 ng/mL and from 70 to 330 ng/mL, respectively. An excellent linearity was observed with both procedures from the LOQs up to 2000 ng/mL. The use of the reversed-phase and cation-exchange sorbent Bond Elut Certify showed advantages compared with Chem Elut columns for the screening of these antidepressants such as higher recoveries, cleaner extracts, better sensitivity, better precision, and less solvent consumption and disposal.