Simultaneous determination of salbutamol and terbutaline at overdose levels in human plasma by high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection

A multidimensional column chromatographic method involving electrochemical detection using a carbon fibre microelectrode flow cell was optimized and successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of salbutamol and terbutaline in plasma at overdose levels. This method performs, in a single step, an efficient extraction and clean-up of salbutamol and terbutaline from human plasma. The calibration graphs over three days were linear over the calibration range 20–100 ng/mL plasma with a limit of detection of 1 ng and 0.8 ng/mL plasma for salbutamol and terbutaline, respectively. The intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were less than 8% and the recoveries ranged from 94 to 96%. The accuracy of the assay, which was defined as the percentage difference between the mean concentration found and the theoretical concentration, was 7% or better. The proposed method combines the advantages of being simple, reproducible and selective in the presence of other sympathomimetic and commonly ingested drugs and is suitable for routine analyses to obtain valuable information about the clinical effects and treatment of overdose with these drugs. The whole procedure takes ca. 10 min and compares favorably with detection at a conventional glassy carbon electrode.