Quaternary ammonium steroidal neuromuscular blocking (NMB) drugs; such as, Rocuronium (ROC), Vecuronium (VEC), Pancuronium
(PAN) and Pipecuronium (PIP), can be extracted and quantitated from plasma samples employing a sensitive gas chromatographic
(GC) assay. Our fully automated GC system uses a cross-linked capillary column and a nitrogen phosphorous detector to quantitate
these short and long-acting NMB drugs.
The procedure employs a single dichloromethane extraction of iodide pairs of ammonium compounds from acidified ether washed
plasma samples. Quantitations for these short and long-acting drugs are very stable and reproducible. The upper limit of detection
is 5,000ng/ml while the lower limit is 2ng/ml for VEC, PAN, PIP and 25ng/ml for ROC.
