Concise overview of the clinical pharmacokinetics of dideoxynucleoside antiretroviral agents.

In this paper aspects of the clinical pharmacokinetics of the antiretroviral agents zidovudine, didanosine and zalcitabine are reviewed. Special attention is paid to possibly altered pharmacokinetics in special circumstances, such as hepatic and renal dysfunction, pregnancy, stage of disease, etc. The dideoxynucleoside antiretroviral agents have some clinical pharmacokinetic properties in common (rapid absorption and elimination), but substantial differences exist in their degree of absorption, metabolism and penetration into the cerebrospinal fluid. All agents display wide interpatient variability in pharmacokinetic parameters. The relevance of therapeutic drug monitoring of antiretroviral agents is also discussed.