Article date: July 2010
By: Yasuhiro Tsuda, Shinji Tatami, Norio Yamamura, Yusuke Tadayasu, Akiko Sarashina, Karl‐Heinz Liesenfeld, Alexander Staab, Hans‐Günter Schäfer, Ichiro Ieiri, Shun Higuchi, in Volume 70, Issue 1, pages 88-101
WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT
AIMS
The main objective of this study was to characterize the population pharmacokinetics of tamsulosin hydrochloride (HCl) in paediatric patients with neuropathic and non‐neuropathic bladder. A secondary objective was to compare the pharmacokinetics in paediatric patients and adults.
METHODS
Tamsulosin HCl plasma concentrations in 1082 plasma samples from 189 paediatric patients (age range 2–16 years) were analyzed with NONMEM, applying a one compartment model with first‐order absorption. Based on the principles of allometry, body weight was incorporated in the base model, along with fixed allometric exponents. Covariate analysis was performed by means of a stepwise forward inclusion and backward elimination procedure. Simulations based on the final model were used to compare the pharmacokinetics with those in adults.
RESULTS
Beside the priori‐implemented body weight, only α1‐acid glycoprotein had an effect on both apparent clearance and apparent volume of distribution. No other investigated covariates, including gender, age, race, patient population and concomitant therapy with anti‐cholinergics, significantly affected the pharmacokinetics of tamsulosin HCl (P < 0.001). The results of simulations indicated that the exposure in 12.5 kg paediatric patients was 3.5–4.3 fold higher than that in 70.0 kg adults. After a weight‐based dose administration, the exposure in paediatric patients was comparable with that in healthy adults.
CONCLUSIONS
A population pharmacokinetic model of tamsulosin HCl in paediatric patients was established and it described the data well. There was no major difference in the pharmacokinetics of tamsulosin HCl between paediatric patients (age range 2–16 years) and adults when the effect of body weight was taken into consideration.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2125.2010.03662.x
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