Monitoring of tobramycin in human plasma via mixed matrix membrane extraction prior to capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection

Abstract A sample pre-treatment method based on a dynamic mixed matrix membrane tip extraction followed by capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection (CE-C 4 D) was evaluated for the determination of tobramycin in human plasma. The extraction tip device consisted of a cellulose triacetate membrane tip wall immobilised with 15% (w/w) of hydrophilic lipophilic balance (HLB) nanoparticles as adsorbent. The extraction was performed dynamically by withdrawing/dispensing the plasma sample through the tip device followed by desorption into 20 μL of acidified aqueous solution at pH 3 prior to the CE-C 4 D analysis. Under the optimum conditions, the detection limit of the method for tobramycin was 10 ng/mL, with intraday and interday repeatability RSDs of 3.5% and 4.5%, respectively. Relative recoveries in spiked human plasma were 99.6%–99.9%. The developed approach was successfully demonstrated for the quantification of tobramycin in human plasma samples.