ABSTRACT
Analysis of steroids within pharmaceutical products is mainly carried out using chromatographic techniques, the chief of which is high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Several reviews concerning HPLC analysis of steroids used in the pharmaceutical industry have appeared over the past decade. The in-vitro and in-vivo investigations reported here are concerned with the percutaneous absorption of triamcinolone acetonide (TACA) and HALC in order to determine the influence of various factors on the permeation rates of the two corticosteroids. The percutaneous absorption of TACA has been examined using radiolabeled TACA. However, due to the lack of suitable methodology to determine the permeation rates and skin content of unlabeled TACA and HALC, it was decided to develop appropriate HPLC methodology. All in-vivo permeation studies were conducted on healthy male volunteers. HPLC assays were successfully developed for the determination of very low (ng/mL) concentrations of corticosteroids in skin permeation (in-vitro) and tape-strip (in-vivo) investigations.
