ABSTRACT
Analysis of antibiotics in body fluids and tissues goes back to the beginning of the antibiotic era [1]. There are three broad purposes in such works: (1) to verify that a patient’s dose is providing therapeutic but not toxic concentrations in fluids and tissues (2) to regulate the concentrations of antibiotics in edible tissues, and (3) to find appropriate doses, routes of administration, and kinetics of elimination of new antibiotics in normal as well as diseased individuals. The first usually has important application only to the patient whose samples are tested: the second has public health implications on the long-term possible development of antibiotic resistance. By contrast, in the third, quality of the analytical work affects how the new antibiotic will be used on many patients for a long time. Thus, the emphasis of this chapter is on microbiological assays for this purpose.
