Influence of the hemodialysis on the half-life of practolol in patients with severe renal failure.

Practolol, a recent and more selective beta-adrenergic receptor blocking drug, was given orally as a single dose of 200 mg to seven healthy volunteers and to six patients suffering from severe renal impairment and submitted to the long-term hemodialysis program. The plasma drug decay was markedly slowed and the plasma half-life was prolonged sixfold in the uremic patients in comparison to healthy volunteers. Hemodialysis (8 hours) starting 48 hours after drug intake lowered plasma practolol significantly but transiently. The shorter half-life during hemodialysis and the detection of equally high values of practolol in the ultrafiltrates as in the plasma demonstrate that this drug is readily removable from the plasma. However, the ascending slope of the plasma drug concentration curve which appeared following hemodialysis is suggestive of an incomplete drug removal from the body.