Determination of clindamycin in human plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography using coupled columns

A rapid automated method has been developed for the determination of clindamycin, a lincosamide antibiotic, in human plasma. Coupled column HPLC was used after precipitation of plasma proteins with a saturated ammonium sulfate solution. As a first step, the drug and internal standard were trapped on a precolumn of LiChrospher 60RP-select B. A reversed-phase Nucleosil 100 C18 HD column then separated drug and internal standard from each other and from remaining plasma components. The assay was validated in the range 0.2-10.0 micrograms ml-1 plasma. The results obtained for accuracy, intra- and inter-day precision complied very well with the generally accepted criteria for bioanalytical assays.