Pharmacokinetics of intravenous and oral sodium 2-mercaptoethane sulphonate (mesna) in normal subjects.

The pharmacokinetics of mesna (sodium 2-mercaptoethane sulphonate) and its inactive disulphide, dimesna, were investigated using high performance liquid chromatography in six normal subjects following intravenous and oral administration of 800 mg mesna. The mean maximum mesna concentration after i.v. administration was 111 (s.d. +/- 28.3) nmol ml-1 and the mean maximum dimesna concentration was 183 (s.d. +/- 41.6) nmol ml-1. Following oral mesna dosing the mean peak mesna concentration was 19.6 (s.d. +/- 10.2) nmol ml-1 but mesna was only found in the plasma of five of the six subjects. The mean peak dimesna concentration was 22.5 (s.d. +/- 12.4) nmol ml-1. Following i.v. mesna administration, the mean half-life of mesna was 21.8 (s.d. +/- 3.1) min and total body clearance 1.23 (s.d. +/- 0.31) l kg-1 h-1. The mean half-life of dimesna was 1.17 (s.d. +/- 0.32) h. It was not possible to determine their half-lives after oral mesna administration. The mean mesna concentration in the 0-4 h urine collection was 9.6 (s.d. +/- 10.7; range 1.4-28.7) nmol ml-1 following i.v. mesna injection. After oral mesna the highest mesna concentration occurred in either the 0-4 or 4-8 h urine collections. The mean peak mesna concentration was 2.5 (s.d. +/- 1.7) mumol ml-1 (c.f. estimated uroprotective concentration of 1.7 mumol ml-1). The mean 4 h urinary clearance of the uroprotective species mesna was 0.413 (s.d. +/- 0.136) l kg-1 h-1. After both i.v. and oral mesna the urinary excretion of mesna is predominantly during the first 4 h.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)