A method using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection was developed to simultaneously measure MDMA and its metabolite MDA in rat blood and brain microdialysates. The technique, which involves derivatization with DIB-Cl, achieved linear calibration curves for MDA and MDMA over ranges of 2.5–500 and 5.0–1000 ng/mL, respectively. Detection limits were 1.2 ng/mL for MDA and 4.2 ng/mL for MDMA in blood, and 1.3 and 4.8 ng/mL in brain. Precision was under 5.6%. The method was used to monitor MDMA and MDA in rats and to evaluate pharmacokinetic parameters after MDMA administration with or without caffeine.
A method using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection was developed to measure the abused drugs MDMA, MDA, amphetamine, and methamphetamine in rat urine. The drugs were labeled with a fluorescent reagent and separated within 45 minutes. Detection limits ranged from 0.5 to 15 ng/mL. After a single injection of MDMA to rats, both MDMA and its metabolite MDA could be detected in urine for up to 15 hours, with concentrations ranging from 0.13 to 160.1 µg/mL for MDMA and 0.17 to 10.9 µg/mL for MDA.