Simple liquid chromatographic method for the determination of cefotaxime in human and rat plasma

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method with ultraviolet (UV) detection was developed for measuring cefotaxime in rat and human plasma. The method used direct injection of the plasma supernatant after deproteinization with 70% perchloric acid. Degradation of cefotaxime in acidic medium was retarded by adding phosphate buffer before centrifuging the sample. The mobile phase was 0.05 M aqueous ammonium acetate–acetonitrile–tetrahydrofuran (87:11:2, v/v) adjusted to pH 5.5. Analysis was run at a flow-rate of 1.0 ml/min, and a detection wavelength of 254 nm was used. The method has a quantification limit of 0.20 μg/ml. The within- and between-day coefficients of variation and accuracy values were less than 8% and ±3%, respectively, while the recovery values were greater than 87% over the concentration range tested (0.20–50 μg/ml). The speed, sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility of this method make it particularly suitable for the routine determination of cefotaxime in human plasma. Moreover, only a relatively small sample plasma volume (100 μl) is required, allowing this method to be applied to samples taken from neonates.