Background:

The high increase of invasive fungal infections has increased the use of voriconazole as prophylaxis and treatment, being necessary to monitor its serum concentrations.

Objective:

To standardize and validate a simple method with high efficacy and specificity for the determination of voriconazole.

Method:

For the quantification of voriconazole, a Shimadzu high performance liquid chromatography equipment was used, coupled to an ultraviolet-visible diode array detector, performing the chromatographic separation with a Brisa LC2 C18 column. The chromatographic conditions defined were: column temperature, 35ºC; wavelength, 256 nm; injection volume, 20 µl; flow rate, 1.5 ml/min; analysis time, 9 min, mobile phase water with formic acid 0.5 % / acetonitrile 65/35. Prior to chromatographic injection, the samples underwent a treatment consisting of protein precipitation with acetonitrile and subsequent centrifugation, and the supernatant was injected The SPSS v. 25 statistical program was used, considering a p<0.05 as statistically significant.

Results:

The method developed is selective and linear (r2 =1), with a coefficient of variation ≤ 5%. In terms of accuracy and precision, the coefficients of variation were ≤ 5 %, thus complying with the requirements established for the concentration range 0.1 µg/ml-10 µg/ml.

Conclusion:

The selectivity and the simplicity of the sample treatment make it an effective, fast and simple method for the determination of voriconazole in serum and with a higher sensitivity than the immunoassays used.