An Ion-Pairing High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography Assay for the Determination of Cefoperazone in Plasma and Urine

Abstract

A high-performance liquid chromatographic assay for cefoperazone (cfp) in plasma and urine is described. For analysis, the internal standard ticarcillin (ticar) is solvated in acetonitrile, which is then added to plasma or urine. The supernatant is drawn off of the resulting protein precipitate and injected directly onto the reverse-phase C₁₈ column, with detection at 254 nm. The mobile phase is composed of phosphate-acetonitrile-tetramethylammonium chloride (TMA). Coefficients of variation for reproducibility were less than 9% for extra-low, low, medium, and high controls. Limits of detection were 0.5 μG/mL for plasma and 1 μG/mL for urine. No interference from other cephalosporins or other antibiotics was found. This high-pressure liquid chromatographic ion-pairing assay is simple, accurate, inexpensive, and requires no extraction.