Simultaneous determination of cefotaxime and desacetylcefotaxime in real urine sample using voltammetric and high-performance liquid chromatographic methods.

Two rapid, accurate and sensitive methods are developed and validated for the quantitative simultaneous determination of cefotaxime (CFX) and its active metabolite desacetylcefotaxime (DCFX) in urine. Based on the previous results which showed the four electron reduction of CFX at approximately -0.5 V, and the new findings that DCFX reduction occurred at more positive potential (-0.23 V), the new adsorptive stripping differential pulse voltammetric (AdSDPV) method was developed for determination of CFX in the presence of DCFX. Linear responses were observed over a wide concentration range (0.07-0.52 microg/ml for CFX and 0.22-1.3 microg/ml for DCFX) in urine. The second assay involves subsequent separation on a reversed-phase HPLC column, with ultraviolet detection at 262 nm. Retention times were 4.057 and 1.960 min for CFX and DCFX, respectively. Linear responses were observed over a wide range, 0.55-6.60 microg/ml for CFX and 1.10-11.00 microg/ml for DCFX, in urine. The statistical evaluation for both methods was examined by means of within-day repeatability (n=5) and day-to-day precision (n=3) and was found to be satisfactory with high accuracy and precision.