Serum pharmacokinetics of antimycobacterial drugs in patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis during therapy.

Serum samples of 13 patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis were taken 0, 1, 2, 4, 8 h after administration of antimycobacterial drugs for assay of levels in order to gain further insight into their basic pharmacokinetics. The drugs assessed were amikacin, kanamycin, ofloxacin, levofloxacin, para-aminosalicylic acid, prothionamide, cycloserine, pyrazinamide and ethambutol. Techniques used for assay were reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, gas liquid chromatography and fluorescent polarization immunoassay The results from 12 patients were evaluated. These provided new pharmacokinetic data on high-dose levofloxacin, cycloserine and prothionamide given once daily and could be useful in guiding the scheduling of drugs. The data obtained might also lead to insights into the development of therapeutic drug monitoring in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.