The quantitative detection of aripiprazole and its main metabolite by using capillary-electrophoresis.

BACKGROUND We aimed to establish a feasible and reliable method to measure the level of aripiprazole and its main metabolite, dehydroaripiprazole, using a capillary-electrophoresis (CE) machine. METHODS Two blood samples were obtained from psychiatric patients hospitalized in Yu-Li Hospital who had been treated with aripiprazole for more than 4 weeks, at least 10 mg/d. Conditions for voltage, temperature and buffer concentration was optimized on a CE machine. RESULTS The most optimal conditions for CE were 80 mM 2-3% DMSO-phosphate as a buffer under pH = 3.0, 15 KV, 20°C and a detection wavelength of 214 nm. The linear ranges of aripiprazole and dehydroaripiprazole concentration were from 0.5 to 50 ng/mL. CONCLUSION CE method is a feasible method to measure aripiprazole level with relatively low price compared with other analytical techniques for clinical use.