Determination of the quaternary compound ciclotropium in human biological material after hydrolysis and derivatization with the fluorophor flunoxaprofen chloride.

The quantitative determination of the quaternary spasmolytic compound ciclotropium and its metabolite N-isopropyltropinium is described for human plasma and urine. The analytical procedure consists of ion-pair extraction from biological material, alkaline hydrolysis, subsequent derivatization with the fluorophor flunoxaprofen chloride and separation by high-performance liquid chromatography on a reversed-phase column with fluorimetric monitoring. The detection limits of 0.5 ng/ml in plasma and 10 ng/ml in urine at signal-to-noise ratios higher than 3 permit the determination of pharmacokinetic parameters after therapeutic doses.