SKIN UPTAKE, DISTRIBUTION, AND ELIMINATION OF ANTIMONY FOLLOWING ADMINISTRATION OF SODIUM STIBOGLUCONATE TO PATIENTS WITH CUTANEOUS LEISHMANIASIS

We examined in this study the pharmacokinetics of Sb in the affected s kin and normal skin of patients treated with sodium stibogluconate for cutaneous leishmaniasis and compared the results with those for the b lood, The procedure was fully explained, and a written consent was obt ained from each of nine patients, After a dose of sodium stibogluconat e equivalent to 600 mg of Sb was administered intramuscularly, small s kin biopsies were collected under local anesthesia at different time i ntervals from the circumferences of the lesions and simultaneously fro m normal skin, Antimony was measured in these biopsies after suitable ashing and processing by flameless' atomic absorption spectrophotometr y. The means (with standard errors of the means in parentheses) of the peak concentration, time to peak concentration, area under the curve, half-life, and mean residence time in lesions were 5.02 (1.43) mu g/g , 2.1 (0.4) h, 32.8 (6.1) mu g.h/g, 6.88 (0.54) h, and 10.4 (1.2) h, r espectively, and those in normal skin were 6.56 (2.01) mu g/g, 2.6 (0. 8) h, 44.0 (15.8) mu g.h/g, 5.44 (0.83) h, and 8.08 (1.34) h, respecti vely, There was no significant difference in any of these parameters b etween lesions and normal skin, whereas the differences in peak concen tration, half-life, and mean residence time between lesions and whole blood were significant (P less than or equal to 0.05), The penetration of Sb into skin, either affected or normal, as measured by the skin/b lood area under the curve ratio appears to be complete, but the dispos ition is slow compared with that from the blood.