High-performance liquid chromatography of deacetylmetipranolol in plasma.

A sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic method with electro-chemical detection is developed for the determination of deacetylmetipranolol (DMP), an active metabolite of beta-sympatholytic drug metipranolol (MP). DMP is extracted from the plasma after basifying with dichloromethane. After evaporation, the residue is reconstituted in the mobile phase, injected onto the reversed-phase ODS column and chromatographed at 50 degrees C. The sensitivity of the method is 2 ng of DMP in 1 ml plasma. Pindolol, another beta-blocking agent is used as internal standard. The method is used for a pharmacokinetic investigation of MP in healthy volunteers and in the patients with liver cirrhosis.