Fast quantitative determination of diuretic drugs in tablets and human urine by microchip electrophoresis with native fluorescence detection

Microchip electrophoresis (MCE) with native fluorescence detection has been applied for the fast quantitative analysis of pharmaceutical formulations. For this purpose, methods for fast separation and sensitive detection of the unlabeled diuretic drugs, amiloride, triamterene, bendroflumethiazide (BFMTZ), and burrietanide were developed. An epifluorescence setup was used enabling the coupling of different lasers into a commercial fluorescence microscope. The detection sensitivity of different excitation light sources was compared utilizing either a HeCd laser (lambda(exc) = 325 nm), a frequency quadrupled Nd:YAG laser lambda(exc) = 266 nm), or a mercury lamp (lambda(exc) = 330-380 nm). At optimal conditions using the HeCd laser, the drugs were separated within 15 s with LODs less than 1 mu g/mL for the four compounds. A linear relationship between concentration and peak area was obtained in the concentration range of 0.05-20 mu g/mL with a mean correlation coefficient of around 0.996 for all analytes. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of the respective drugs in commercial formulations and in human urine without interference from other constituents. These data show that MCE has a great potential for reliable drug analysis.