Relationships between the pharmacokinetics of carbon tetrachloride conversion to carbon dioxide and chloroform and liver injury.

Rate and extent of CCl4 metabolism by pathways leading to CO2 and CHCl3 were evaluated by measuring the amounts of these metabolites exhaled during discrete intervals following six different doses of CCl4. Pulmonary pharmacokinetics of 14CO2 and CHCl3 exhalation after CCl4 administration were compared with those after Na214CO3 and 14CHCl3 administration. Exhalation of 14CO2 metabolite declined more rapidly than expected after hepatotoxic doses of CCl4. This decline could be due to injury associated changes in the metabolism of CCl4.