Rapid high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of cefepime in human plasma.

A simple, rapid and reproducible high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the quantitative determination of cefepime in human plasma was developed. Ceftazidime was used as internal standard. Chromatography was performed on a reversed-phase encapped column (Hypersil BDS C18). The samples, after protein precipitation, were eluted with a mobile phase of acetonitrile-acetate buffer, pH 4 (2.8:97.2, v/v). The detection wavelength was 254 nm. The limit of quantitation of cefepime was 0.5 microgram/mL and only 0.5 mL of plasma sample was required for the determination. The average cefepime recoveries over a concentration range of 0.5-500 micrograms/mL ranged from 98 to 104%. Precision and accuracy did not exceed 5%.