Alleged effect of bile constituents on gentamicin assays.

It has been claimed that gentamicin assays on the serum of jaundiced patients give falsely low levels and suggested that the antibiotic in such sera is bound to bile acids and thus is partly inactivated. No evidence of such inactivation has been obtained (i) in the serum of jaundiced patients treated with gentamicin, (ii) in sera with high bilirubin contents to which gentamicin was added, or (iii) when bile or bile acids were added with gentamicin to normal serum.