The pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of flumethasone in camels

The pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) of flumethasone was evaluated in 6 healthy camels after a single intravenous bolus doses of 5 μg/kg body weight. The PD was performed by applying PK/PD modeling using cortisol, circulating lymphocytes, neutrophils and plasma glucose as biomarkers. Plasma flumethasone and cortisol concentrations were measured by validated liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry methods (LC-MS/MS). Plasma flumethasone versus time concentration were fitted by nonlinear regression and were best described by a two compartment model. The PK parameters (mean ± SD) were; terminal elimination half-life was 10.45 ± 0.65 h, total body clearance was 115.8 ± 7.99 ml/h/kg and volume of distribution at steady state was 1631.6 ± 116.03 ml/kg. The PD parameters showed that flumethasone is a very potent steroidal anti-inflammatory drug as reflected by the estimated low IC₅₀ of flumethasone for cortisol and lymphocytes.