Rapid analysis of benzodiazepines in whole blood by high-performance liquid chromatography: use of a monolithic column.

In a previous work [J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal. 23 (2000) 447] a rapid high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method, using a monolithic column in HPLC coupled with a diode-array detector, was developed for the quantitative determination of benzodiazepines in whole blood. The present method has been applied to the assay of eight benzodiazepines amongst the most frequently encountered in forensic toxicology: clonazepam, desalkylflurazepam, diazepam, flunitrazepam, lorazepam, midazolam, nordiazepam and oxazepam. The sample pre-treatment involved a liquid-liquid extraction of blood samples by n-butyl chloride. The separation was carried out in reversed-phase conditions using a Chromolith Performance (RP-18e 100 x 4.6 mm) column. The mobile phase was composed of a phosphate buffer (35 mM, pH 2.1) and acetonitrile (70:30, v/v) and the flow-rate was 2 ml/min. The duration of the analysis was less than 4 min and the results of validation, including linearity, precision, recovery, limit of quantification, were satisfactory. The therapeutic and toxic concentrations usually encountered for these substances could be measured. The compounds were separated by a monolithic column which, on account of its particular structure, could bear higher flow-rates than usually found for this kind of analysis. The present method has been applied to two real cases and was tested with about 30 compounds.