HPLC method for measuring meropenem and biapenem concentrations in human peritoneal fluid and bile: application to comparative pharmacokinetic investigations.

A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method using ultrafiltration to pretreat peritoneal fluid and bile samples is developed to measure meropenem and biapenem concentrations in human peritoneal fluid and bile. Meropenem or biapenem in peritoneal fluid or bile samples is stabilized by mixing with 1 mol/L 3-morpholinopropanesulfonic acid buffer (pH 7.0) (1:1). The mixture is transferred to a Nanosep 10K centrifugal filter device; after centrifugation, the filtrate is subjected to reversed-phase HPLC, and the eluate is monitored at 300 nm. No interference from endogenous substances is observed. The lower limits of quantification are 0.05 microg/mL for peritoneal fluid and 0.1 microg/mL for bile. The new method has been applied to comparative site-specific-pharmacokinetic investigations in surgery patients.