AIM: To assess the pharmacokinetic profile of single doses of meloxicam in healthy Chinese volunteers.METHODS: The plasma concentrations of meloxicam after an oral dose of 15 mg to twenty healthy male volunteers were analyzed by means of a validated HPLC method. The pharmacokinetic parameters were subjected to Shapiro-Wilk test to determine whether these data were fitted to a normal distribution.RESULTS: The twenty volunteers can be classified into extensive metabolizers and poor metabolizers according to pharmacokinetic parameters. The main parameters in the two groups obtained were as follows: T 1/2 were 21 +/- 4 and 38 +/- 9 h, AUC0-infinity were 49 +/- 10 and 110 +/- 8 micrograms.h.mL-1, respectively. Even the AUC data in extensive metabolizers were 1.7 times as that reported in White volunteers following the same doses of meloxicam.CONCLUSION: There were significant individual differences in the pharmacokinetics of meloxicam in Chinese volunteers, which may be due to the genetic polymorphism of CYP2C9.
Adult Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal