부산대학교 도서관

To estimate the potential of metronidazole in treatment of gynecological anaerobic infections and trichomoniasis, a pharmacokinetic study was conducted in 18 Japanese subjects. Penetration of metronidazole into venous blood and female genital tissues were examined. Metronidazole was administered orally at a dose of 250 milligrams to 7 volunteers and 11 patients undergoing hysterectomy, at 3.5 to 14 hours prior to hysterectomy. The venous blood was taken at 1, 2, 4, 6, 6.5, 8, 18 and 24 hours after oral administration in 7 volunteers. At surgery in 11 patients, venous blood, portio vaginalis, uterine cervix, uterine endometrium, uterine myometrium were collected separately. Metronidazole concentrations in each tissue were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. The concentrations of metronidazole and their ratio versus that of cubital venous blood (in parentheses) were as follows; cubital venous blood: 3.06 to 7.10 mg/L, portio vaginalis: 2.30 to 7.06 mg/kg (74.1-104.0%), uterine cervix: 1.80 to 6.36 mg/kg (58.8-99.2%), uterine endometrium: 0.87 to 8.05 mg/kg (28.1-142.7%) and uterine myometrium: 1.24 to 6.30 mg/kg (40.0-106.4%). The concentrations of metronidazole in gynecological tissues appeared to be slightly below or similar to those in serum samples. Metronidazole can rapidly penetrate from plasma into these female genital tissues, consistent with the high efficacy of metronidazole against trichomoniasis and anaerobic bacterial infections. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]