Plasma turnover and excretion of K-strophanthoside-3H in human volunteers after parenteral administration

Synergic development of pharmacokinetics and bioanalytical methods as support of pharmaceutical research

The development of pharmacokinetics led this science to achieve a relevant role in the investigation of new chemical entities for therapeutic application, and has allowed a series of new useful realizations of out of patent drugs like prolonged release and delayed release formulations, therapeutic delivery system (TDS) for drugs to be active in systemic circulation avoiding the first pass effect, orodispersible and effervescent formulations, intramuscular and subcutaneous depot formulations acting over a long period, oral inhalatory systems, and drug association at fixed dose. The above applications had pharmacokinetics as protagonist and have required the support from bioanalytical methods to assay drug concentrations, even in pg·mL(-1) of plasma, that really have paralleled the synergic development of pharmacokinetics.The complexity of the above realizations required specific guidelines from the regulatory authorities, mainly the US FDA and EU EMA, which have normalized and, in most cases, simplified the above applications admitting some waivers of in vivo bioequivalence.However, this review highlights some critical points, not yet focused on by operating guidelines, which need to be clarified by regulatory authorities. One of the most relevant issues is about the planning and conducting bioavailability and bioequivalence trials with endogenous substances, that possess own homeostatic equilibria with fluctuations, in some cases with specific rhythms, like melatonin and female sex hormones. The baseline subtraction required by guidelines to define the net contribute to the exogenous absorbed drug in most cases is a non-solvable problem.

Haemodynamic evaluation of ibopamine in severe congestive heart failure

Ten patients suffering from refractory congestive heart failure were treated orally with Ibopamine 100 mg. The haemodynamic effects were evaluated with a Swan-Ganz catheter and thermodilution technique, 1 and 2 h after treatment. Ibopamine significantly increased the cardiac index and stroke work index, and decreased pulmonary pressure and the pulmonary and peripheral vascular resistances without affecting heart rate or blood pressure.

Bilary and urinary excretion of five cardiac glycosides and its correlation with their physical and chemical properties

Biliary and urinary excretion of five tritium-labelled cardiac glycosides, i.e. Ouabain, K-strophanthoside, Digoxin, Digitoxin and Deslanatoside C, were investigated in anaesthetized guinea-pigs 5 h after i.v. or enteral administration. Urinary excretion is the main route of elimination in the case of Ouabain and Deslanatoside C. Conversely, biliary excretion is predominant in the case of Digoxin and Digitoxin. K-strophanthoside is excreted both via bile and urine. In conscious guinea-pigs treated i.v. with the same cardiac glycosides the highest levels were observed in urine, bile, kidneys and liver. The relative values of those levels were in agreement with the excretion pattern observed in anaesthetized animals. An inverse linear relation (P less than 0.05) was encountered between biliary excretion rate and polarity of glycoside molecula. This correlation has been previously observed by other authors in other species, but not in the rabbit. This suggests that the correlation may not be considered generally applicable at present.