Determination of sisomicin in eluate from dried blood spot on filter paper disc for monitoring of blood level in rat, by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography after pre-column fluorimetric derivatization.

About 20 microliters of whole blood obtained by venipuncture from rat tail vein was spotted onto a filter paper and the blood spot was punched out (5 mm diameter). Sisomicin (SISO) in the dried blood spot (DBS) was extracted effectively into 0.5 M Na2HPO4 solution by ultrasonication and determined by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with pre-column derivatization using o-phthalaldehyde and beta-mercaptopropionic acid. This method could be used for the pre-clinical study of SISO blood levels of a number of mice or rats without killing. The results were identical with those for SISO in serum, if corrected for hematocrit values, and were used for the calculation of pharmacokinetic parameters for individual rats. The detection limit of SISO in DBS (10.1 microliters of whole blood) was 1.0 microgram per ml of whole blood.