[Assessment of adherence to antibiotic treatment in Primary Care by determining levels of the drug using a liquid chromatography technique]. / Valoración de la adherencia al tratamiento antibiótico en Atención Primaria mediante la determinación de niveles del fármaco utilizando una técnica de cromatografía líquida.

OBJECTIVE: The lack of adherence to antibiotic treatments is a matter of special interest, which has important clinical implications, as it is associated with therapeutic failure and increased bacterial resistance causing a high sani-tary cost. The objective of our study was to assess the degree of adherence to prescribed antibiotic treatment in outpatients through the detection of these in blood, urine or sputum. METHODS: Concentrations of antibiotics prescribed in 39 patients (34 with clinical suspicion of urinary tract infection and 5 with clinical suspicion of low respiratory tract infection) treated in Primary Care consultations of the Sanitary District of Almería (Spain) were determined by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. RESULTS: A 48.7% of the patients did not comply correctly with the indicated treatment due to the complete or partial omission in taking the prescribed antibiotics. This lack of adherence was independent of the age and sex of the patients, the number of daily doses of the antibiotic, and whether or not they were receiving another medication. CONCLUSIONS: Precise analytical techniques such as liquid chromatography can be useful to detect inadequate or incomplete treatments as well as the degree of adherence of outpatients. Thus, adequate measures could be established that affect the control of therapeutic compliance.