Abstract
A sensitive method for the simu-taneous determination of dexamethasone and cortisol in serum is described.The procedure involves pre-column derivatization of corticosteroids through their 21-hydroxyl groups with9-anthroyl nitrile followed by high-performance liquid chromatography of the fluorescent esters.These two were efficiently separated on a Cosmosi-5SL column with hexane/ethyl acetate (7: 5) and determined with a detection limit of20fmol employing the21-(9-arlthroyl) derivative of triamcinolone acetonide as an internal standard.The clean-up of corticosteroids hbiologicalfluidswasattainedbythe use of a Sep. pak C18cartridge.
