Unimodal distribution of the metabolic ratio for debrisoquine in Cuna Amerindians of Panama.

Article date: August 1990

By: LF Jorge, TD Arias, T Inaba, PR Jackson, in Volume 30, Issue 2, pages 281-285

1. The metabolic oxidation of debrisoquine (DB) was studied in 89 non‐ related Cuna Amerindian subjects. 2. Means and standard deviations for urinary recoveries of the intact drug and its 4‐hydroxy metabolite (4‐ HD) were: %DB: 6.8 +/− 4.5; %4‐HD: 16.0 +/− 9.1; %sum: 22.8 +/− 12.0. The log10 metabolic ratios for DB (LMRDB) were distributed within a single mode of insignificant skewness (‐0.01, P greater than 0.10), which was unimodal (log kernel density and maximum likelihood methods) and normal (chi 2 = 22.5; d.f. = 15; P greater than 0.09; power of the test greater than 80%). 3. Therefore, no poor metabolizers (95% C.I.: 0.1%, 5.2%) were detected in the population sample studied.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2125.1990.tb03776.x

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