Digitalis

Abstract

Pharmacokinetics and BioavailabilityPharmacokineticsThe broad outlines of pharmacokinetic patterns of commonly used cardiac glycosides were carefully sketched by the studies of Gold and Modell and their co-workers in the 1940's.^{149 150 151} Doherty has reviewed in detail the further contributions of studies with isotopically labeled cardiac glycosides to the current understanding of digitalis pharmacokinetics.^{152 , 153} Table 1 summarizes current information related to absorption, onset of action, and excretion times and patterns for cardiac glycosides commonly used in the United States. It cannot be overemphasized that the values given are averages, and substantial individual variation is to be expected.As recently discussed in the Journal . . .