A sensitive and specific method for the determination of memantine in human plasma is presented. Memantine was extracted from plasma and derivatized to the pentafluorobenzoyl derivative in a one-step procedure avoiding any sample concentration steps. Amantadine was used as an internal standard. The compounds were measured by gas chromatography/negative ion chemical ionization mass spectrometry without any further processing. Using this detection mode, the fragment ions at m/z 353 and 325 were obtained at high relative abundance. Calibration graphs were linear over the range 0.117-30 ng ml(-1). At the limit of quantification (LOQ), the inter-assay precision was 2.00% and the intra-assay variability was 3.22%. The accuracy at the LOQ showed deviations of -1.42% (intra-assay) and -2.47% (inter-assay). The method is rugged, rapid and robust and was applied to the batch determination of memantine during pharmacokinetic profiling of the drug.
Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.