[Pharmacokinetics of cefotaxime and desacetylcefotaxime in the blood serum and bronchial secretion in patients with chronic bronchitis after administration of a single 24-hour dose].

Concentrations of cefotaxime and its major active metabolite, desacetylcefotaxime, were determined in the serum and bronchial secretion of patients with chronic bronchitis aggravated after intramuscular injection of cefotaxime in a dose of 4 g once a day. Characteristic patterns of cefotaxime metabolism and high peak concentrations of desacetylcefotaxime in the serum (67.6 +/- 17.2 micrograms/ml) defined the prolonged retention of the metabolite both in the blood and bronchial secretion. The metabolite concentrations in more than half of the patients maintained within 2 micrograms/ml in the bronchial secretion by the 12th hour after the injection and in the blood serum by the 24th hour. Therefore, 4 g cefotaxime administered intramuscularly once a day provided the blood concentrations of the metabolite comparable with the MIC for the majority of the pathogens causing nosocomial infections of the respiratory tract practically within the whole period of the daily dosage. In the bronchial secretion such concentrations were attained within half of the period of the daily dosage.