Clinical Pharmacology of Amikacin Sulphate: Blood, Urinary and Tissue Concentrations in the Terminal Stage of Pregnancy

Abstract

Within a broad programme of research into the pharmacokinetics of various antimicrobials in gynaeco-obstetric patients, with a view to determining its concentrations in the different compartments and reproductive organs, we administered 7·5 mg/kg of amikacin sulphate to eleven women in the terminal stage of pregnancy one hour before collecting the specimens studies. The concentration in the maternal blood and urine was similar to that obtained during the first weeks of gestation, and to that achieved outside pregnancy. The low determinations observed at the level of the foetal blood and urine and the anniotic fluid, as well as in the placenta and oviducts, is in our view due to the fact that the passage of this drug into the ‘compartments’ mentioned takes place slowly; this hypothesis is, however, subject to corroboration or refutation by further studies on this question. The concentration of this compound found was, nonetheless, bactericidal in all the parameters studied.