KINETICS OF SERUM AMINOSALICYLIC ACID LEVELS.

A mathematical model, involving three consecutive first order reactions, has been applied to already existing experimental material in order to explain the hourly variation in serum levels obtained after administration of varying repeated doses of different preparations of p-aminosalicylic acid to human volunteers. The model closely agrees with the experimental data for all the orally administered preparations concerned, and the differences in blood levels for different preparations can be explained in terms of the values attributed to the parameters involved in the model. The same model adequately describes the elimination of aminosalicylic acid from the blood after a single intravenous infusion provided that the initial blood level attained does not exceed about 11 mg/100 ml., but fails at higher values. In the latter instance a second order model gives a good fit to the experimental curves. The increase in serum levels found experimentally for the same subjects during the first weeks of prolonged treatment with phenyl-p-aminosalicylate corresponds to a change in the values of the parameters for the elimination from the blood only.