Determination of gentamicin in swine and calf tissues by high-performance liquid chromatography combined with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.

Gentamicin is a broad-spectrum aminoglycoside antibiotic widely used in veterinary medicine for the treatment of serious infections. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a method to determine gentamicin residues in edible tissues of swine and calf. Extraction of gentamicin was performed using a liquid extraction with phosphate buffer containing trichloroacetic acid, followed by a solid-phase clean-up procedure on a CBA weak cation-exchange column. Tobramycin was used as the internal standard. After drying of the eluate, the residue was redissolved and further analyzed by reversed-phase liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Chromatographic separation of the internal standard tobramycin and the gentamicin components was achieved on a Nucleosil (5 microm) column using a mixture of 10 mM pentafluoropropionic acid in water and acetonitrile as the mobile phase. The gentamicin components C1a, C2 + C2a and C1 could be identified with the MS/MS detection, and subsequently quantified. The method was validated according to the requirements of the EC at the maximum residue limit (MRL) (100 ng g(-1) for muscle and fat, 200 ng g(-1) for liver and 1000 ng g(-1) for kidney), half the MRL and double the MRL levels. Calibration graphs were prepared for all tissues and good linearity was achieved over the concentration ranges tested (r > 0.99 and goodness of fit <10%). Limits of quantification of 25.0 ng g(-1) were obtained for the determination of gentamicin in muscle, fat, liver and kidney tissues of swine and calf, which correspond in all cases to at least half the MRLs. Limits of detection ranged between 0.5 and 2.5 ng g(-1) for the tissues. The within-day and between-day precisions (RSD) and the results for accuracy fell within the ranges specified. The method was successfully used for the determination of gentamicin in tissue samples of swines and calves medicated with gentamicin by intramuscular injection.