Direct, simultaneous measurement of chloramphenicol and its monosuccinate ester in micro-samples of plasma by radial-compression liquid chromatography.

A simple method of simultaneous analysis for chloramphenicol and chloramphenicol succinate in 10-microL samples of plasma is described. We injected the plasma samples directly into a radial-compression liquid chromatograph equipped with a precolumn module and a C18 insert. A mixture of acetic acid solution (pH 3)/acetonitrile (75/25, by vol) was used as mobile phase, at a flow rate of 4 mL/min. We separated the compounds in a 10-micron (particle size) C18 cartridge with a radial compression separation system and detected them in the effluent at 280 nm. The peak height for both compounds was linearly (r greater than 0.9993) related to concentration over the range investigated, 1-50 mg/L. We also performed the analysis with use of an internal standard (methylprednisolone) and obtained equally good results (r greater than 0.9995). We observed no interference from other antibiotics or drugs in the assay, and the inter- and intra-run precision at different concentrations was good (CV, 0 to 5.6%). We analyzed microsamples of plasma from an infant treated for meningitis with chloramphenicol sodium succinate intravenously. Total analysis time for each sample was less than 8 min.