Automated high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of spiramycin by direct injection of plasma, using column-switching for sample clean-up.

A fully automated high-performance liquid chromatographic method is described for the determination of spiramycin 1 in plasma. First, 1 ml of plasma is diluted with 1.5 ml of 4% acetonitrile containing spiramycin 2 as internal standard, and 1 ml is then injected via an automatic sampling unit. A pneumatic valve, which is remote-controlled by the programmable timer of an integrator, switches the sample, initially injected onto a precolumn for sample clean-up, to an analytical column for sample separation. This method was compared with a microbiological assay and has been successfully applied to pharmacokinetic studies on spiramycin in humans.