Simple high-performance liquid chromatography determination of ampicillin in human serum using solid-phase extraction disk cartridges.

A simple and reproducible method for the analysis of ampicillin in human serum was developed. Serum samples were extracted using solid-phase extraction disk cartridges containing a sorbent of styrene divinyl/benzene. Extracts were separated by reversed-phase C18 high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection at 220 nm. The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile-10 mM NaH2PO4 (6.5:93.5, v/v). Using this extraction procedure, recovery from serum was 98.4+/-5.6%. The quantitation limit was 0.19 microg/ml using 0.5 ml of serum. The calibration curves from 0.19 to 9.41 microg/ml were linear with correlation coefficients of 0.999. This method is suitable for therapeutic drug monitoring of ampicillin (ABPC) after oral administration of lenampicillin hydrochloride.