Kinetics of canrenone after single and multiple doses of spironolactone

In Study I 20 normal volunteers received a single oral dose of spironolactone 100 mg. In Study II a further 20 normal volunteers were given first spironolactone 100 mg b.i.d. and subsequently spironolactone 100 mg once a day for a further 4 days. In Study III 5 normal subjects were given a single dose of spironolactone 500 mg. The concentration of canrenone in serum was determined both by fluorimetry and HPLC for 0–48 h in Study I, 120–168 h in Study II and 0–36 h in Study III. The total AUCs after the single 100 mg dose did not differ from the AUCs within the dosing interval during steady state. The half-lives of the terminal log-linear phases were almost identical (14.99±0.80 h and 15.69±0,80 h) when determined by fluorimetry, and were sligthly, but significantly (p<0.01), longer when determined by HPLC — 20.14±1.62 and 18.71±1.04. The mean ratio of the specific AUC determined by HPLC and the fluorimetrically determined AUC was 0.3 after the single 100 mg dose. It did not differ from the corresponding value during steady state (0.34). In contrast, the ratio after the single 500 mg dose was approximately 50% higher. Fluorimetrically determined AUCs after 100 and 500 mg doses did not show dose-proportionality in contrast to the HPLC-determined AUCs. It was concluded that Canrenone contributes much less to the conventional fluorimetric determination than was previously assumed. It may not provide more than 1/10 and 1/4 of the antimineralocorticoid activity of spironolactone after single dose and multiple doses, respectively. Whereas linear kinetics apply after single and multiple 100 mg doses of spironolactone, after 500 mg saturation kinetics must be assumed with respect to metabolism. Thus, in bioavailability studies high doses of spironolactone should be avoided. For such studies the fluorimetric assay seems to be the appropriate bioanalytical method in spite of its lower specificity.