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Reaction between iodine and azide ion induced by mercaptopyridines and mercaptopyrimidines was utilized as a detection system in TLC and HPTLC. The developed plates were sprayed with a freshly prepared mixtures of sodium azide and starch solution adjusted to pH 5.5, and exposed to iodine vapour. The spots became visible as white spots on violet-grey background. The iodine-azide detection system has been proved to be the most favourable and enabled to detect quantities per spot in the range of 1-20 pmol (HPTLC) and 1-60 pmol (TLC). The iodine-azide tests were compared with other visualizing techniques commonly used in planar chromatography (iodine vapour and UV254). The developed method was applied to detection of thiopental in biological samples.

The reaction between iodine and azide ions induced by thiopental was utilized as a postcolumn reaction for chromatographic determination of thiopental. The method is based on the separation of thiopental on an Nova-Pak CN HP column with an acetonitrile-aqueous solution of sodium azide as a mobile phase, followed by spectrophotometric measurement of the residual iodine (lambda=350 nm) from the postcolumn iodine-azide reaction induced by thiopental after mixing an iodine solution containing iodide ions with the column effluent containing azide ions and thiopental. Chromatograms obtained for thiopental showed negative peaks as a result of the decrease in background absorbance. The detection limit (defined as S/N=3) was 20 nM (0.4 pmol injected amount) for thiopental. Calibration graphs, plotted as peak area versus concentrations, were linear from 40 nM. The elaborated method was applied to determine thiopental in urine samples. The detection limit (defined as S/N=3) was 0.025 nmol/ml urine. Calibration graphs, plotted as peak area versus concentrations, were linear from 0.05 nmol/ml urine. Authentic urine samples were analyzed, thiopental was determined at nmol/ml urine level.

Aims: Thiopentone is administered as a racemate (rac-thiopentone) for induction of anaesthesia as well as for neurological and neurosurgical emergencies. The pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of rac-thiopentone have been extensively studied but the component R-(+)- and S-(-)- enantiomers, until very recently, have been largely ignored., Methods: The present study analyses the pharmacokinetics of R-(+)- and S-(-)-thiopentone in 12 patients given rac-thiopentone intravenously for induction of anaesthesia and five patients given a prolonged infusion of rac-thiopentone used for treatment of intracranial hypertension., Results: The mean total body clearance (CLT) and apparent volume of distribution at steady-state (Vss) showed trends towards higher values for R-(+)- than for S-(-)-thiopentone in both patient groups; CLT and Vss of unbound fractions of R-(+)- and S-(-)-thiopentone, however, did not show these trends. The time courses of R-(+)- and S-(-)- thiopentone serum concentrations were so similar that EEG effect could not be attributed to one or other enantiomer. Serum protein binding for S-(-)-thiopentone was greater than for R-(+)-thiopentone (P = 0.02) and 24 h urinary excretion of R-(+)-thiopentone was greater than for S-(-)-thiopentone (P = 0.03). In one patient, concomitant measurement of CSF and serum thiopentone concentrations found that serum: CSF equilibration of unbound fractions of both enantiomers was essentially complete., Conclusions: The study was unable to determine any pharmacokinetic difference of clinical significance between the R-(+)- and S-(-)-thiopentone enantiomers and concludes that minor differences in CLT and Vss could be explained by enantioselective difference found in serum protein binding.

Thiopental is an anaesthetic drug which is currently used for cerebral resuscitation. In this last indication the drug is administrated at high doses over a period of several days. Under clinical trials thiopental and two metabolites namely 5 ethyl-5 (1' methyl-3' hydroxy-butyl) 2 thiobarbituric acid and 5 ethyl-5 (1' methyl-3' carboxy-propyl) 2 thiobarbituric acid have been determined by high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. In human plasma high concentrations of thiopental and 5 ethyl-5 (1' methyl-3' hydroxy-butyl) 2 thiobarbituric acid and a lower concentration of 5 ethyl-5 (1' methyl-3' carboxy-propyl) 2 thiobarbituric acid have been found. In urine samples these metabolites are excreted in large and approximately equal quantities, whereas small amounts of thiopental were recovered.

The urinary excretion of thiopentone and its metabolite, pentobarbitone, was studied in 7 neonates whose mothers-had received thiopentone. During the urine collection period (range 39.3-63.8 h), a mean of 26.4 micrograms thiopentone was recovered, representing only a mean of 0.0066% of the maternal dose. This suggests that the elimination of thiopentone by the neonate occurs mainly by metabolism. The metabolite pentobarbitone could not be detected. Mean elimination half-life of thiopentone, calculated from sigma-minus plots, was 8.04 h which is similar to the value reported previously in adults. This contrasts with other barbiturates which show much longer half-lives in neonates than in adults.

Methods involving solvent extraction and gas-liquid chromatography have been developed for quantitative determination of certain thiobarbiturates and their major metabolites in urine. The structures of the metabolites identified were confirmed by the use of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The present analytic methods were applied to the quantitative determination of (R)-(+)- and (S)-(-)-thiopental as well as (R)-(+)- and (S)-(-)-thiamylal and their major metabolites excreted in human urine. Minor metabolites were isolated and identified.