Glc Determination of Valproic Acid in Plasma

Abstract
A one-step glc procedure was developed for the quantitative determination of valproic acid in plasma. After addition of internal standard (4-methyl valeric acid), plasma is buffered at pH 4.5 to avoid hydrolysis of valproic acid conjugate (s). Evaporation is avoided by extraction into a chloroform bead. The method is sufficiently sensitive to quantitate 0.8 μg of the drug in 0.2 ml of plasma. The procedure has been thoroughly tested for precision and reproducibility through the determination of over two thousand samples.