Determination of 2'-deoxy-5-iodouridine and its metabolite 5-iodouracil by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet absorbance detection in human serum.

A new assay is described for 2'-deoxy-5-iodouridine, a drug employed as an antiviral agent by topical application. The parent drug, its systemic metabolite 5-iodouracil and an internal standard (5-iodouridine) were extracted from salted serum by an ethyl acetate partition at pH 6.7, back-extracted in alkalinized water and injected into a reversed-phase column. Potassium phosphate buffer-acetonitrile (95:5, v/v) eluted the analytes at a flow-rate of 1.5 ml/min. Detection was at 290 nm. The method proved to be linear in the 100-2000 ng/ml range.