A simple and simultaneous determination of acyclovir and ganciclovir in human plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography

A simple high‐performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous determination of the therapeutic levels of acyclovir and ganciclovir in human plasma. After precipitation of plasma proteins with 6% perchloric acid, acyclovir and ganciclovir were simultaneously determined by reversed‐phase chromatography with spectophotometric detection at 254 nm. The peak heights for acyclovir and ganciclovir were linearly related to their concentrations ranging from 0.063 to 2.080 µg/mL. The recovery was 100.48–102.84% for acyclovir and 99.26–103.07% for ganciclovir. The intra‐ and inter‐day relative standard deviation values were in the range 0.186–8.703% for acyclovir and 0.137–6.424% for ganciclovir. The detection limits for both compounds were 0.01 µg/mL determined as the signal‐to‐noise ratio of 3. The present method is applicable to therapeutic monitoring during antiviral medication. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.