The ability of fluconazole to penetrate into ventilated, healthy and inflamed lung tissue in a model of severe sepsis in rats.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: We measured the extracellular concentrations of fluconazole in lung tissue of septic and healthy rats.

METHODS: A single intravenous dose of 6 mg/kg total body weight of fluconazole was administered intravenously to rats following insertion of microdialysis probes into lung tissue. Another probe was inserted into skeletal muscle and served as control.

RESULTS: The mean peak concentration (C(max)), time to C(max), area under the concentration-versus-time curve from 0 to 6 h (fAUC(0-6)) and area under the concentration-versus-time curve from 0 to ∞ of unbound fluconazole for healthy lung were 11.0 ± 2.3 mg/l, 1.9 ± 1.5 h, 47.4 ± 8.6 mg·h/l and 233.7 ± 121.1 mg·h/l, respectively. The corresponding values for inflamed lung were 11.8 ± 1.7 mg/l, 1.5 ± 0.0 h, 52.9 ± 6.2 mg·h/l and 212.6 ± 79.7 mg·h/l, respectively. The mean apparent terminal elimination half-lives of fluconazole ranged from 12.3 to 22.4 h between compartments. The ratios of the fAUC(0-6) for lung to the fAUC(0-6) for plasma were 1.38 ± 0.39 and 1.32 ± 0.04 for healthy and inflamed lung, respectively.

CONCLUSION: We provide evidence that free fluconazole levels in plasma, the extracellular space fluid of lung tissue and skeletal muscle are almost superimposable during inflammatory and normal conditions.