High-performance liquid chromatographic measurement of amiodarone and desethylamiodarone in small tissue samples after enzymatic digestion.

A method is described for the measurement of amiodarone and desethylamiodarone in small tissue samples. With the exception of fat, for which lipase is used, the tissues are digested with a proteolytic enzyme. After the addition of an internal standard the analytes are extracted from the homogeneous digest into an organic solvent and measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detection at 240 nm. The method shows good reproducibility using tissue samples as small as 20 mg and suggests extensive accumulation of both compounds in some tissues, with particularly high concentrations in tissues associated with adverse effects of the drug.