Simultaneous separation and quantitation of four antiepileptic drugs—a study with potential for use in patient drug level monitoring

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to illustrate the applicability of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD) in simultaneously separating and quantitating four commonly used antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). A mixture of the four AEDs were separated using a C8 column using volatile mobile phases and were detected using ELSD. Optimal instrumental conditions were obtained by assessing the effect of various critical experimental parameters such as evaporator tube temperature, carrier gas flow rate, photomultiplier gain on separation efficiency, accuracy, reproducibility and sensitivity of measurement on all four AEDs. A novel, rapid, accurate, sensitive, reproducible and robust HPLC–ELSD method for simultaneous separation and quantitation of four commonly used AEDs was developed. The physical basis of the results obtained as a consequence of varying several critical experimental parameters has been explained. This study illustrates the potential for use of HPLC–ELSD in drug level monitoring of patients undergoing mono- or polytherapy for epilepsy.