Therapeutic drug monitoring of tacrine: simple and fast high-performance liquid chromatography assay method for its determination in human plasma

A new high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) assay method was developed for the therapeutic monitoring of tacrine. The method involved a simple protein precipitation by means of either acetonitrile or cold methanol followed by a fast isocratic separation on a CN column eluted in reversed-phase mode. The entire sample preparation took place in an HPLC vial and no further liquid transfer was required. The validation data showed that the assay method was precise, accurate, and robust. Analysis of more than 1,000 plasma samples collected from patients with Alzheimer disease demonstrates the suitability of the assay.