Analysis of sodium levothyroxine or sodium liothyronine in tablets

Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of liothyronine sodium and levothyroxine sodium in tablet formulations: preliminary studies on dissolution and content uniformity

Levothyroxine sodium was estimated from tablet formulations of levothyroxine sodium and liotrix (liothyronine sodium-levothyroxine sodium combination tablet). The procedures consisted of the addition of 3,3-,5-triiodothyronine as the internal standard to the pulverized sample, followed by an acidic butanol extraction, evaporation, and injection onto a muBondapak reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic column. The eluent was methanol-water-phosphoric acid (50:50:0.1), and the effluent was monitored by UV detection at 254 nm. A standard linear calibration curve was obtained for direct standard solutions equivalent to 18-225 micrograms of levothyroxine sodium/tablet. The procedure is sensitive enough for single-tablet analysis. Using this procedure, content uniformity studies were performed on liothyronine sodium tablets, levothyroxine sodium tablets, and liotrix tablets. The procedure also was adapted for conducting dissolution studies on levothyroxine sodium tablets in deionized water using the rotating-paddle method.

Analysis of individual thyroid tablets

A procedure was developed for the assay of individual thyroid tablets or composite samples equivalent to as little as 0.033 g (0.5 gr) of thyroid. The sample is ignited in a closed atmosphere of oxygen and, after a series of redox reactions, the iodine is determined spectrophotometrically as the triiodide ion. The results agree well with those obtained by the USP thyroid tablet assay.