Determination of alentamol hydrobromide, a novel antipsychotic agent, in human blood plasma and urine by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection and solid-phase extraction.

Alentamol hydrobromide, (+)-2-(dipropylamino)-2,3-dihydro-1H-phenalen-5-ol monohydrobromide, is a selective dopamine agonist currently being investigated for the treatment of schizophrenia. This paper describes a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic-based method for the quantification of alentamol in blood plasma and urine. The method utilizes solid-phase extraction with carboxylic acid-derivatized silica columns. A limit of quantitation of 0.1 ng/ml in plasma was achieved by virtue of selective extraction and fluorescence detection. Example chromatograms of plasma and urine specimens from clinical trials demonstrate the utility of the method.