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

Mirtazapine is an antidepressant agent with dual action on both the noradrenergic and serotonergic neurotransmitter systems. A simple high performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed and validated for the quantitative determination of mirtazapine in human plasma. A reversed-phase Cl8 column was used for the determination of mirtazapine with a mobile phase composed of 0.01M ammonium acetate solution (pH 4.2) and acetonitrile (75:25, v/v%) at a flow rate of 1.2 mL/min. Terazosin hydrochloride was used as an internal standard. The fluorescence detector was set at excitation and emission wavelengths of 290 and 350 nm, respectively. Intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy were acceptable for all quality control samples including the lower limit of quantification of 3 ng/mL. Mirtazapine was stable in human plasma under various storage conditions. This method was used successfully for a pharmacokinetic study using plasma samples after oral administration of a single 30 mg dose as mirtazapine base to 8 healthy volunteers. The maximum plasma concentration of mirtazapine was $64.1{\pm}28.0ng/mL$ at 1.8 h, and the area under the curve and elimination half-life were calculated to be $674.1{\pm}218.5ng\;h/mL\;and\;23.4{\pm}3.8h$, respectively.