Pharmacokinetics of high-dose methylprednisolone in children.
Disposition of methylprednisolone was characterized in 11 children receiving the high-dose therapy (26.0 mg/kg on average). After intravenous infusion, methylprednisolone hemisuccinate was rapidly converted to methylprednisolone with a half-life of about 20 min. Methylprednisolone in serum, eliminated monoexponentially in 8 patients and biexponentially in the remaining three, had the mean residence time of about 3 h, and a terminal half-life of 2.5 h. The volume of distribution at steady state, and the clearance were 1.3 liters/kg and 0.5 liters/kg/h, respectively. Although these average pharmacokinetic parameters were comparable to those determined in other studies with conventional low doses, the clearance values in our data were characterized by 5-fold interindividual difference, suggesting large variations in exposures to methylprednisolone among children on the high-dose pulse therapy.
Ito
S
S
Department of Pediatrics, Asahikawa Medical College, Japan.
Kusunoki
Y
Y
Oka
T
T
Ito
Y
Y
Okuno
A
A
Yoshioka
H
H
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007262:Infusions, Intravenous; D008297:Male; D008775:Methylprednisolone / Q000097:blood / Q000493:pharmacokinetics* / Q000652:urine
D008775:Methylprednisolone