earticle

영어

Meloxicam has been used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and related inflammatory diseases. Although to date several literatures addressed the pharmacokinetics of meloxicam in Caucasian, Indian, South African, etc, no information has been reported on that in Korean. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the pharmacokinetic characteristics of meloxicam in Korean and to compare it with those previously published in other races. Following a single oral administration of meloxicam 15 mg in 20 Korean healthy male volunteers, blood samples were serially collected up to 72 hrs. Plasma concentration of meloxicam was determined by liquid chromatography coupled to a tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). Peak plasma concentration was 1.8±0.4 mg/L at about 4 hr, and it declined by a monophasic pattern with about 20 hr of a half-life, which was similar to those in South African. Interestingly, however, systemic exposure of meloxicam in Indian was just a half of that in Korean and German represented a slow absorption (ka, 0.36 h-1) up to 8 hr. One-compartment model with a first order absorption could describe the plasma meloxicam concentration-time profile, and ka, ke and Vd/F were estimated to be 0.95±0.62 h-1, 0.038±0.007h-1 and 9.05±2.11 L, respectively. One has to pay attention to refer the previous data from other races for a new study design in Korean, and it would be necessary to have our own data on each drug.