Simplified HPLC Method for the Determination of Prazosin in Human Plasma and Its Application to Single-dose Pharmacokinetics

Prazosin hydrochloride is an antihypertensive drug with selective ${\alpha}_1$-adrenoreceptor blocking effects. A simple high performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed and validated for the quantitative determination of prazosin in human plasma. A reversed-phase C18 column was used for the separation of prazosin and terazosin (internal standard) with a mobile phase composed of water, acetonitrile and triethylamine(75:25:0.1, V/V;pH5.0) at a flow rate of 1.5 ml/min. the fluorescence detector was set at excitation and emissionwavelengths of 250 and 370 nm, respectively. Intra-and inter-day precision and accuracy were acceptable for all quality control samples including the lower limit of quantification of 0.5 ng/ml. Good recovery (>80%) was seen in plasma. Prazosin was stable in human plasma under various storage conditions. This method was used successfully for a pharmacokinetic study in plasma after oral administration of a single 2-mg dose as prazosin base to 16 healthy volunteers. The maximum plasma concentration of prazosin was 23.1 ${\pm}$ 16.5 ng/ml at 2.1 h, and the mean area under the curve and elimination half-life were calculated to be 108.4 ${\pm}$ 74.2 ng ${\cdot}$hr/ml and 2.5 ${\pm}$ 0.6 h, respectively.