Purpose: To investigate the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of ciprofloxacin in critically ill patients after the first intravenous administration of 400 mg.
Material/methods: Plasma concentrations were measured in 20 critically ill patients (mean [SD]; age, 55.5 [16.5] years; weight, 80.3 [16.9] kg; and creatinine clearance, 110.0 [71.5] mL/min). Four blood samples were drawn at the following time points 0, 0.5, 6 , 8 hours after infusion. Ciprofloxacin concentrations were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography.
Results: In the cases where ciprofloxacin was applied in targeted antibiotic therapy the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were ≤0.5 mg/l. The maximum and minimum plasma concentrations of ciprofloxacin were 1.74 (0.58-7.90) and 0.45 (0.16-2.96) mg/l, respectively. The main pharmacokinetic parameters for ciprofloxacin in the analyzed patients were as follows: k(el), 0.21 h-1; t(1/2kel), 3.37 h; AUC(0-inf), 10.10 mg×h/l; AUMC(0-last), 15.36 mg×h(2)/l; MRT, 1.71 h; V(d), 214.8 l; Cl, 39.70 l/h. Considering the maximum value of MIC (0.5 mg/l) only 30% and 25% of analyzed patients had desired values of the PK/PD indexes AUIC>125 and C(max) /MIC>10, respectively.
Conclusions: The target plasma concentrations after the first dose of ciprofloxacin were reached only in a few critically ill patients. Considerable inter-subject variability for PK/PD parameters in ICU patients requires systematic monitoring.