Selective method for the determination of cefdinir in human plasma using liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandam mass spectrometry

A sensitive and selective liquid chromatographic–tandem mass spectrometric (LC–MS/MS) method was developed for the determination of cefdinir in human plasma. After a simple protein precipitation using trichloracetic acid, the post-treatment samples were applied to a prepacked RP18 Waters SymmetryShield column interfaced with a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer. Positive electrospray ionization was employed as the ionization source. The mobile phase consisted of methanol–water–formic acid (25:75:0.075, v/v/v). The analyte and I.S. cefaclor were both detected by the use of selected reaction monitoring mode. The method was linear in the concentration range of 5–2000 ng/ml. The lower limit of quantification was 5 ng/ml. The intra- and inter-day relative standard deviation across three validation runs over the entire concentration range was less than 4.3%. The accuracy determined at three concentrations (36, 360 and 1800 ng/ml for cefdinir) ranged from 99.6 to 106.7% in terms of recovery. The chromatographic run time for each plasma sample was less than 3 min. The method herein described was successfully applied for the evaluation of pharmacokinetic profiles of cefdinir capsule in 12 healthy volunteers.