A rapid and simple flow-through solid phase espectrofluorimetric system (sensor) is described in this paper for the determination of the diuretic triamterene at ng ml(-1) level in physiological fluids and in pharmaceuticals. This sensor is based on the transitory retention of the analyte on the cationic ion-exchanger gel Sephadex SP C-25 placed into a quartz flow-cell in the detection zone itself of a spectrofluorimeter and the continuous monitorization of its intrinsic fluorescence. The spectrofluorimeter was tuned at 240 (excitation) and 440 nm (emission). A transitory signal was obtained because the carrier solution used also eluted the analyte from the sensing zone and no derivatization reactions were needed. Triamterene could be determined in the concentration ranges of 10-400 and 2.5-80 ng ml(-1) with detection limits of 0.95 and 0.17 ng ml(-1) for 300 and 1000 microl of sample volume, respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSD) for ten independent determinations and at three concentration levels of standards solutions were lower than 0.90 for 300 microl and 0.45 for 1000 microl. The RSDs for the determination of triamterene in serum samples and pharmaceuticals were lower than 3.3 and 2.6%, respectively. The method was satisfactorily applied to the determination of triamterene in human serum and pharmaceuticals.