Development and Validation of a Simple and Rapid HPLC Method for Determination of Pioglitazone in Human Plasma

liquid chromatographic method was developed for the determination of pioglitazone in human plasma. After liquid–liquid extraction with diethylether, samples were quantitated on a NovaPak C8 column using a mixture of acetonitrile–140mM K2HPO4 (40:60, v/v, pH = 4.45) as mobile phase with UV detection at 269 nm. The flow rate was set at 1.4 mL/min. Ethylparaben was used as internal standard and the total run time of analysis was approximately 7 min. The method was linear over the range of 25–1500 ng/mL of pioglitazone in plasma (r2 > 0.999). The withinand between-day precision values were in the range of 2.4–6.8%. The limit of quantitation of the method was 25 ng/mL. The method was successfully used to study the pharmacokinetics of pioglitazone in healthy volunteers.