PHARMACOKINETICS OF LOMEFLOXACIN IN HEALTHY-VOLUNTEERS - COMPARISON OF 400 MILLIGRAMS ONCE DAILY AND 200 MILLIGRAMS TWICE DAILY GIVEN ORALLY FOR 5 DAYS

We evaluated the effect of repeated oral doses (5 days of treatment) on the kinetics of lomefloxacin in volunteers and compared the kinetics after two different regimens, i.e., 400 mg once daily and 200 mg twice daily. After 400 mg of lomefloxacin was given once daily, no significant modification in the pharmacokinetic parameters was noted between the first and the fifth dose (maximum concentration of drug in serum, about 4 mg/liter; elimination half-life, about 6.3 h). After a dose of 200 mg every 12 h, a significant increase in the minimum concentration of drug in serum (0.49 ± 0.1 and 0.72 ± 0.2 mg/liter at days 1 and 5, respectively) and the area under the concentration-time curve (about 20%) was noted. The 400-mg regimen is probably adequate for therapeutic use.