Application of high-performance liquid chromatography with synchronized accumulating radioisotope detector to analysis of glyceryl trinitrate and its metabolites in rat plasma.

A new, sensitive, and specific high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the quantitative analysis of [14C]glyceryl trinitrate and its four metabolites in plasma is described. The drugs are extracted from 0.05 ml of plasma with methanol and analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography using a synchronized accumulating radioisotope detector. The limit of detection is 0.2 ng per injection. The within-day coefficient of variation is 5.9% at a concentration of 27.0 ng per ml of plasma. The method was applied to single-dose pharmacokinetics of glyceryl trinitrate in rat.