Saturation of the tubular excretion of beta-lactam antibiotics.

1 The saturability of the tubular excretion of cloxacillin, benzylpenicillin and cephradine was investigated. 2 Volunteers received a continuous infusion of one of the antibiotics at increasing infusion rates in order to maintain constant plasma concentrations at three different levels. Blood and urine samples were taken every 30 min. Sufficient urinary flow was ensured by a saline infusion (500 ml h-1). 3 Renal clearance of the antibiotic was calculated for the non-protein bound fraction of the drug. 4 Tubular clearance and tubular excretion rate were estimated by using the renal clearance of the antibiotic minus the glomerular filtration rate; the latter was considered to be equal to creatinine clearance. 5 Data were fitted to a Scatchard transformation and, by nonlinear methods, to a Michaelis-Menten equation. 6 Parameters of saturability, i.e. EC50 and maximal tubular excretion rate, were established. The values found for EC50 were 7.7, 93.0 and 266 mg l-1 for cloxacillin, benzylpenicillin and cephradine, respectively. The values calculated for the maximal tubular excretion rate were 1017, 5535 and 4537 mg h-1, respectively.