The use of the new SPE methods for isolation of some tricyclic antidepressant drugs from human serum.

Solid-phase extraction (SPE) methods were applied to isolation of amitriptyline (AMI), imipramine (IMI) and chlorprothixene (CPX) from blood human serum. SPE was carried out using the octadecyl (C(18)) column for isolation of AMI and cyclohexyl (CH) columns in the case of IMI and CPX. The spiked serum samples were used to examine the recoveries of these drugs from C(18) and CH sorbent materials. The volume of serum sample was 500 microl. The recoveries of SPE method using CH cartridge were 100.3+/-1.63% (n=7), 99.7+/-2.3% (n=9) for IMI and CPX, respectively. The recovery of AMI from C(18) cartridge was 99.5+/-1.5% (n=8). Finally, after SPE sample clean-up step the antidepressant drugs were assayed by the own extractive-spectrophotometric methods.