Chemometrics-assisted simple UV-spectroscopic determination of carbamazepine in human serum and comparison with reference methods.

In the present report, carbamazepine is determined on serum samples of real patients by a procedure completely assisted by chemometric tools. First, a response surface methodology based on a mixture design was applied in order to select the best conditions for the extraction step. Finally, partial least squares multivariate calibration (PLS-1) was applied to second-derivative UV spectra, eliminating a shift baseline effect that originated in the extraction procedure. The performance assessment included: (a) a three-level precision study, (b) a recovery study analyzing spiked samples, and (c) a method comparison with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA) applied on real patient samples. The obtained results show the potentiality of the presently studied methodology for the monitoring of patients treated with this anticonvulsant.