Simultaneous HPLC analysis of triamcinolone acetonide and budesonide in microdialysate and rat plasma: Application to a pharmacokinetic study

A specific and reliable HPLC-PDA method for the quantitative determination of triamcinolone acetonide, budesonide and fluticasone propionate (as internal standards) in small volumes of microdialysate and rat plasma was developed. An efficient solid-phase extraction (SPE) procedure for plasma samples yielded extremely clean extracts with overall recovery of 104.3% and 95.7% for triamcinolone acetonide (TA) and fluticasone propionate, respectively. Plasma extracts obtained after SPE and microdialysis samples were directly injected on a C18 columm to separation. The method has been validated with good linearity, sensitivity, specificity and high accuracy (RE −5.28% to 9.14%) and precision (CV 0.50% to 6.62%) on both matrices. In stability studies, TA and budesonide were stable during storage and assay procedures. The method was applied to a pharmacokinetic study in rodents using microdialysis to determine protein unbound TA concentrations in blood and muscle.