title: Cefotaxime levels in ventricular cerebrospinal fluid, determined by bioassay and by high-performance liquid chromatography.
abstract: Five series of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples, obtained from external ventricular drains (EVD) of 4 neurosurgical patients with cefotaxime treatment were tested simultaneously by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and microbioassay using E. coli V 6311/65 as test organism. Higher cefotaxime (CTX) concentrations in CSF were measured by the microbioassay method in 4 of the 5 series, reflecting the microbioassay being influenced by increasing amounts of desacetyl-cefotaxime (DAC) during the post-application interval. Decrease of CTX levels in CSF was consistently faster in tests performed by HPLC than those using microbioassay. The clinical efficacy in gram-negative bacillary meningitis is to be explained by levels of the parent compound CTX in CSF which are several times higher than the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of most enterobacteriaceae.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D001681:Biological Assay / Q000379:methods; D001711:Biotransformation; D002439:Cefotaxime / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D002552:Cerebral Ventricles; D002648:Child; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D002439:Cefotaxime