[Technic for assaying cefotaxime and desacetylcefotaxime in serum by high performance liquid chromatography]

Different high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods for determination of cefotaxime (Ctx) and desacetyl cefotaxime (D-Ctx) are used. The method described presents the following advantages: a fast extraction and efficient deproteinization of serum samples are achieved with Sep-Pak cartridges; the mobile phase is a mixture of methanol - bidistilled water - acetic acid which permits the simultaneous dosage of Ctx and D-Ctx under the same chromatographic process. The retention times are respectively 7 mn 05 s and 10 mn 40 s for D-Ctx and Ctx. The results of 92 assays were compared with microbiological procedures.