Abstract
Drug overdose is the most common method in suicide attempts. Amitriptyline (AMT), a tricyclic antidepressant agent, known for potentially lethal cardiovascular and neurological effects, is used especially by intoxicated patients. The aim of this study was to validate a method for the determination of AMT in gastric lavage samples by high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC). Artificial gastric lavage was used to obtain a better extraction procedure for AMT. The method was also applied to patients who attempted suicide with AMT. A validated, accurate, and rapid HPTLC-based method was developed for quantitation of AMT in gastric content of intoxicated patients. Extraction was done from 3 mL gastric lavage sample by liquid-liquid extraction procedure with ethyl acetate-n-heptane (1:1, w/w) in alkaline pH with 10.8. The mobile phase was an isocratic solvent system consisting of methanol-ammonia (25%) (98.5:1.5, v/v). 3,4-Methylenedioxy-Nmethamphetamine (MDMA) was used as internal standard (IS). Analy...
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