Pharmacokinetics of lincomycin and clindamycin phosphate in a canine model.

Linomycin and clindamycin phosphate were studed in a canine model in which acute biliary obstruction was produced during iv infusion of antibiotic. Hepatic and renal extraction, bilary and renal excretion, and concentrations in liver and kidney were measured. Total and nonesterified clindamycin were assayed. The antibiotics were taken up by the liver at similar rates; however; the rates of excretion and concentration in bile were significantly higher for lincomycin than for clindamycin. Biliary obstruction did not affect the concentration of either antibiotic in canalicular bile. Lincomycin was extracted by the kidneys and excreted into urine at a much higher rate than was clindamycin. Concentrations of nonesterified clindamycin in the hepatic vein were higher than those in the portal vein, an observation suggesting metabolic activation within the liver. This relation was reversed by bilary obstructon. The results in this canine model indicate a greater role for the kedney in the disposition of lincomycin than in that of clindamycin, major differences between the rates of biliary excretion of the two agents, and a probable change in the metabolism of clindamycin procued by acute bilary obstruction.