title: Concentration and regional distribution of propofol in brain and spinal cord during propofol anesthesia in the rat.
abstract: We evaluated the pharmacokinetics and regional distribution of propofol in the brain and spinal cord during propofol anesthesia in Sprague-Dawley rats, using high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of propofol concentration in brain, whole blood and plasma. We found that the concentration of propofol in the brain increased and decreased expeditiously during and after a 15-min and 30-min period of i.v. infusion of an anesthetic dose (60 mg/kg per h) of propofol. Furthermore, propofol was evenly distributed in the brain and spinal cord during infusion, with a significant inter-individual variation. Upon the establishment of anesthesia 15 and 30 min following intravenous infusion of propofol, the concentration of propofol in the brain, whole blood and plasma was respectively 15.7 +/- 1.9 and 39.4 +/- 2.7 micrograms/g, 4.5 +/- 1.2 and 13.6 +/- 1.3 micrograms/ml and 1.8 +/- 0.5 and 5.1 +/- 0.9 micrograms/ml (mean +/- SEM, n = 6 or 7). These high brain/blood and brain/plasma ratios during anesthesia suggest that propofol manifests a pharmacokinetic profile that is different from at least thiopental.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Shyr
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chan
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D008297:Male; D009994:Osmolar Concentration; D015742:Propofol / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000378:metabolism*; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D015742:Propofol