A review on development of analytical methods to determine monitorable drugs in serum and urine by micellar liquid chromatography using direct injection.

Therapeutic drug monitoring is a common practice in clinical studies. It requires the quantification of drugs in biological fluids. Micellar liquid chromatography (MLC), a well-established branch of Reverse Phase-High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC), has been proven by many researchers as a useful tool for the analysis of these matrices. This review presents several analytical methods, taken from the literature, devoted to the determination of several monitorable drugs in serum and urine by micellar liquid chromatography. The studied groups are: anticonvulsants, antiarrhythmics, tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, analgesics and bronchodilators. We detail the optimization strategy of the sample preparation and the main chromatographic conditions, such as the type of column, mobile phase composition (surfactant, organic solvent and pH), and detection. The finally selected experimental parameters, the validation, and some applications have also been described. In addition, their performances and advantages have been discussed. The main ones were the possibility of direct injection, and the efficient chromatographic elution, in spite of the complexity of the biological fluids. For each substance, the measured concentrations were accurate and precise at their respective therapeutic range. It was found that the MLC-procedures are fast, simple, inexpensive, ecofriendly, safe, selective, enough sensitive and reliable. Therefore, they represent an excellent alternative for the determination of drugs in serum and urine for monitoring purposes.