A Simple Method for the Determination of Articaine and its Metabolite Articainic Acid in Dentistry: Application to a Comparison of Articaine and Lidocaine Concentrations in Alveolus Blood.

This study was undertaken to develop a time- and cost-effective method for the detection of articaine and articainic acid in alveolus blood by high-performance liquid chromatography with a simple method of sample pretreatment. To overcome the problem of very rapid hydrolysis a method for controlling hydrolysis in vivo after blood sampling was developed. Blood samples were with drawn from the alveolus of the uppermolars 2-74 min after submucuos injection of articaine(2.0 ml 4%) or identical injection of lidocaine (2.0 ml 2%). The higher blood levels found for articaine correspond to the higher concentration of the drug in the injection solution