Bioavailability of Digoxin Tablets in Healthy Volunteers

The bioavailability of digoxin generic tablets manufactures in Korea (formulations A & B) wwere compared to a standard (formulation C; Lanoxin brand digoxin, Burroughs Wellcome, USA) in 12 healthy Korean male volunteers (mean age 31.4 years) in a single dose, randomized, complete block crossover study. Using a latin square design, each of the subjects was randomized to the order number and allocated to each of the three treatments of 0.5mg oral digoxin. Digoxin conc4ntrations in serum and urine samples collected for 48 hours after dosing were measured by fluoprescence polarization immunoassy and radioimmunoassy, respectively. Treatments were compared by using nonlinear least squares regession analysis to evaluate the following pharmacokinetic parameters : maximum serum concentation $(C_{max})$; time of maximum serum concentation $(T_{max})$; area under the serum concentration-time curve $AUC_{0-12}$, $C_{max}$\;and\;(AUC_{0-12})$; and cummulative urinary excretion for 0-48 hours $(CLE_{0-48}.\;Mean\;AUC_{0-12},\;C_{max},\;and\;CUE_{0-48}$ values for formulations B and C were significantly different from formulation A (P<0.001), but not significantly diffeerent form each other. Basede on $AUL_{0-12}\;and\;CUE_{0-48}$ respectively, the relative availability of formulation B was 87.5% and 89.6% and the relative availability of formultation A was 43% and 35% when compared to formulation C(the standard).