Abstract
We evaluated the pharmacokinetics and regional distribution of propofol in the brain and spinal cord during propofol anesthesia in Sprague-Dawley rats, using high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of propofol concentration in brain, whole blood and plasma. We found that the concentration of propofol in the brain increased and decreased expeditiously during and after a 15-min and 30-min period of i.v. infusion of an anesthetic dose (60 mg/kg per h) of propofol. Furthermore, propofol was evenly distributed in the brain and spinal cord during infusion, with a significant inter-individual variation. Upon the establishment of anesthesia 15 and 30 min following intravenous infusion of propofol, the concentration of propofol in the brain, whole blood and plasma was respectively 15.7 ± 1.9 and 39.4 ± 2.7 μg/g, 4.5 ± 1.2 and 13.6 ± 1.3 μg/ml and 1.8 ± 0.5 and 5.1 ± 0.9 μg/ml (mean ± SEM, n = 6 or 7). These high brain/blood and brain/plasma ratios during anesthesia suggest that propofol manifests a pharmacokinetic profile that is different from at least thiopental.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 212-215 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Neuroscience Letters |
| Volume | 184 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 30 01 1995 |
Keywords
- Brain concentration
- Brain/blood ratio
- Brain/plasma ratio
- Propofol anesthesia
- Rat
- Regional distribution