Abstract
Objective—To determine the plasma pharmacokinetics of imipenem (5 mg/kg) after single-dose IV, IM, and SC administrations in dogs and assess the ability of plasma samples to inhibit the growth of Escherichia coli in vitro.
Animals—6 adult dogs.
Procedure—A 3-way crossover design was used. Plasma concentrations of imipenem were measured after IV, IM, and SC administration by use of high-performance liquid chromatography. An agar well antimicrobial assay was performed with 3 E coli isolates that included a reference strain and 2 multidrug-resistant clinical isolates.
Results—Plasma concentrations of imipenem remained above the reported minimum inhibitory concentration for E coli (0.06 to 0.25 µg/mL) for a minimum of 4 hours after IV, IM, and SC injections. Harmonic mean and pseudo-standard deviation halflife of imipenem was 0.80 ± 0.23, 0.92 ± 0.33, and 1.54 ± 1.02 hours after IV, IM, and SC administration, respectively. Maximum plasma concentrations (Cmax) of imipenem after IM and SC administration were 13.2 ± 4.06 and 8.8 ± 1.7 mg/L, respectively. Time elapsed from drug administration until Cmax was 0.50 ± 0.16 hours after IM and 0.83 ± 0.13 hours after SC injection. Growth of all 3 E coli isolates was inhibited in the agar well antimicrobial assay for 2 hours after imipenem administration by all routes.
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Imipenem is rapidly and completely absorbed from intramuscular and subcutaneous tissues and effectively inhibits in vitro growth of certain multidrug-resistant clinical isolates of E coli. (Am J Vet Res 2003;64:694–699)
