Urinary excretion of p-hydroxylated methamphetamine metabolites in man. I. A method for determination by high-performance liquid chromatography-electrochemistry.

p-Hydroxymethamphetamine and p-hydroxyamphetamine in urine samples from methamphetamine addicts were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography-electrochemistry (HPLC-EC). The urine samples were hydrolyzed with equal volumes of 12 N HCl at 60 degrees C for 4 h and were then diluted with water and neutralized with NaOH solution. The neutralized urine was passed through a solid phase extraction column, Bond-Elut C18, and after washing, the substances were eluted with acidified acetonitrile. The eluate was evaporated under a stream of nitrogen. The residue was dissolved in 0.1 N PCA and a small volume of the aliquots was injected into the HPLC. This procedure for determination quantitated both free and conjugated forms of the metabolites together. Thereby we could determine concentrations of the metabolites in minute urine samples; i.e., from 2.5 microliters urine. The free form of the metabolites alone was analyzed by the same procedure except for hydrolysis of the conjugates. Concentrations of methamphetamine, p-hydroxymethamphetamine and p-hydroxyamphetamine in the urine samples of addicts collected at arbitrary times were determined by this procedure or by gas chromatography. It was found that there was no correlation between the concentration of methamphetamine and that of the metabolites. This investigation also revealed that various ratios between the concentrations generally were scattered over a wide range of percentages.