Aim: Liquid–liquid extraction is widely used in therapeutic drug monitoring of antipsychotics, but difficulties in automation of the technique can result in long operational time. In this paper, parallel artificial liquid membrane extraction was used for extraction of serotonin– and serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors from human plasma, and an approach to automate the technique was investigated. Results: Eight model analytes were extracted from 125 μl human plasma with recoveries in the range 72–111% (relative standard deviation [RSD] ≤12.8%). A semiautomated pipettor was successfully utilized in the procedure, reducing the manual handling time. Real patient samples were analyzed with satisfying accuracy. Conclusion: A semiautomated extraction of serotonin–and serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors by parallel artificial liquid membrane extraction extraction was successfully performed.
Keywords:
- microextraction
- parallel artificial liquid membrane extraction
- psychoactive compounds
- sample preparation
- semiautomation
- therapeutic drug monitoring