Figures of merit for the determination of the polymorphic purity of carbamazepine by infrared spectroscopy and multivariate calibration.

Polymorphism is an important property in the quality control of pharmaceutical products. In this regard, partial least squares regression and the net analytical signal were used to build and validate a multivariate calibration model using diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy in the region of 900-1100 cm(-1) for the determination of the polymorphic purity of carbamazepine. Physical mixtures of the polymorphs were made by weight, from 80 to 100% (w/w) form III mixed with form I. Figures of merit, such as sensitivity, analytical sensitivity, selectivity, confidence limits, precision (mean, repeatability, intermediate), accuracy, and signal-to-noise ratio were calculated. Feasible results were obtained with maximum absolute error of 2% and an average error of 0.53%, indicating that the proposed methodology can be used by the pharmaceutical industry as an alternative to the X-ray diffraction (United States Pharmacopoeiamethod). Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association J Pharm Sci 93:2124-2134, 2004