We read with interest the article about the determination of bromoureides in biological fluids by High-Pressure-Liquid-Chromatography by Eichelbaum et al. (1978) in this journal. We agree with the authors that measurement of bromide is not relevant for judgion the clinical state of a patient, who is intoxicated by carbromal or bromisoval. In our hospital we have seen some patients, intoxicated by this drugs, too.
A 16 years old German girl was found in coma in front of the house of her holiday friend. After admittance to our hospital we measured 49 mg carbromal per litre serum. In spite of gastric lavage the serum level was increased to 105 mg/l after about 6 h. Carbromal was visible on a plane abdominal view. Haemoperfusion was applied and about two and a half day after the girl was found, she awaked at a serum level of 37 mg carbromal and 360 mg bromide per litre serum.
After reading the article of Eichelbaum et al. (1978) we did not understand why they use such a timewasting extraction, by using charcoal suspension as extraction additive and evaporation the solvent. By the following method, developed in our laboratory, bromoureides are measurable without evaporation of the solvent in only 15 minutes per sample, including the extraction and chromatographic time.