An underestimated technique. Does pressurized and pressure-assisted capillary electrochromatography have potential in drug and pharmacological-active compounds analysis?

Pharmaceutical analysis guarantees patient safety all over the world. Thus, continuous development of existing analytical techniques is still very important. Pressurized capillary electrochromatography and pressure-assisted capillary electrochromatography are hybrid separation techniques that combine the selectivity of liquid chromatography and the high separation efficiency of capillary electrophoresis. They use a smaller amount of reagents and samples, hence, reducing the total cost of analysis. Therefore they have found application in a number of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis. This review article focuses on the use and importance of pressurized and pressure-assisted capillary electrochromatography in pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis, taking into account types of detectors and capillaries used. Despite the fact that pressurized capillary electrochromatography and pressure assisted capillary electrochromatography offer many possibilities and have been available for over a dozen years, they are still underdevelopment and not fully explored.