Iron Determination in Rat Plasma Samples by Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectrometry and Application to Pharmacokinetic Studies

This paper describes an inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometric method for the analysis of Fe in rat plasma. Calibration curves were obtained in the range of 0.125-1.50 ${\mu}g{\cdot}mL^{-1}$. The relative standard deviation ranges from 5.93% to 6.80%, and accuracy was between 87.6 and 102.0%. Dilution with water had no influence on the performance of the method, which could then be used to quantify Fe concentration in plasma up to 0.50 ${\mu}g{\cdot}mL^{-1}$. The limit of quantification was 0.10 ${\mu}g{\cdot}mL^{-1}$. At this level, the average relative standard deviation was 6.8%. The results indicate that the method meets the accuracy and precision requirements for the pharmacokinetic studies. The Fe concentration in rat plasma was measured and the main pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated by Topfit 2.0 (GmbH. Shering AG, Godecke AG, Germany).