Radioenzymatic assays for aminoglycosides with kanamycin 6'-acetyltransferase

To facilitate the rapid and accurate quantitation of parenterally administered aminoglycosides, we defined the optimum conditions (pH, duration of incubation, and cofactor concentrations) to permit radioenzymatic assays with kanamycin acetyltransferase. The accuracy in quantitating tobramycin, netilmicin, kanamycin, and amikacin at concentrations in the therapeutic range was greater than 90%, with a mean recovery of 102.8%. The mean of the interassay coefficient of variation was 7.8%. Typical standard curves at six different concentrations resulted in a correlation coefficient (r value) of greater than 0.99 for each aminoglycoside. The radioenzymatic assay correlates well with the bioassay (tobramycin and netilmicin) and radioimmunoassay (amikacin and kanamycin); the correlation coefficient is greater than 0.90 for all. We conclude that the radioenzymatic assay utilizing kanamycin 6'-acetyltransferase is feasible for all commercially available parenterally administered aminoglycosides.