Flucytosine: Correlation between toxicity and pharmacokinetic parameters

Flucytosine (5-fluorocytosine, 5-FC) is a systemic antimycotic drug the maj or toxicities of which are bone marrow depression and hepatotoxicity. The p urpose of this observational and retrospective study was to assess a possib le relationship between toxicity and 5-FC pharmacokinetics within a group o f 53 intensive care unit patients, The presented results reveal that thromb ocytopenia is associated with a decreased 5-FC clearance and that the throm bocyte nadir is linearly related to the 5-FC clearance, Furthermore, patien ts experiencing 5-FC levels exceeding 100 mg 5-FC/l were found to be at a h igher risk of developing thrombocytopenia and hepatotoxicity as compared to those not exceeding this level, Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.