Determination of Dirithromycin,LY281389 and Other Macrolide Antibiotics by HPLC with Electrochemical Detection

Abstract

Sensitive and rapid assays have been developed for the determination of the macrolide antibotics dirithromycin, erythromycylamine, and LY281389 in plasma. The methods utilize dichloromethane extraction of alkalinized plasma and isocratic reverse phase HPLC with electrochemical detection. The lower limit of detection is 10 ng/ml. Calibration curves are linear and highly reproducible over the range of 20–500 ng/ml. Precision of the calibration curves is very good having relative standard deviations of 5% or less over the dynamic range. These methods can be used for other macrolide antibiotics with minor modifications to the mobile phase. The electrochemical response of various macrolides was found to be dependent upon the functionality at C-9 of the macrolide ring.