Carbamazepine and carbamazepine-10, 11-epoxide concentrations in human brain.

1 Carbamazepine (CBZ) brain and plasma concentrations were measured in twenty-one patients undergoing brain surgery for tumour removal. The drug was administered prophylactically at doses ranging from 6.9 to 14.8 mg/kg for 4-5 days before the intervention. 2 In seventeen cases where sample were collected 10-14 h after dosing, CBZ brain levels ranged from 2.2-14.5 microgram/g. A significant linear relationship (p less than 0.01) was observed between brain and plasma concentrations with a brain/plasma ratio of 1.1 +/- 0.1. 3 Carbamazepine 10,11-epoxide (CBZ-Epox), present in all samples, could be quantified in three brain specimens. Its brain concentrations ranged from 1.5-2.7 microgram/g with a brain/plasma ratio of 1.1-1.2. 4 Parieto-occipital areas tended to show higher CBZ concentrations while lower values were found in temporal regions. Very low CBZ levels were found in two gliomas while in meningiomas CBZ levels were similar to those observed in normal tissue. 5 The data, showing a linear relationship between brain and plasma concentrations of both CBZ and its epoxide, give additional significance to the plasma level monitoring of antiepileptic drugs.