Penetration of ceftazidime in human pericardial fluid and lung tissue

The penetration of ceftazidime in pericardial fluid and lung tissue was investigated in 14 thoracotomized patients, who had normal renal function and did not receive any antibiotic treatment before thoracotomy. The drug (28 mg/kg) was given by i.v. Blood, pericardial fluid and lung tissue samples were taken over the next 5 hours. Concentrations of ceftazidime in the lung tissue were very high in the first hour and over the 200 and 300 min time interval, the ratio between serum and lung tissue levels was 0.7. The correlation coefficient between pericardial fluid, serum ratio and time was calculated to be of 0.99 (P less than 0.001). From these data we can observe that ceftazidime rapidly diffuses into the pericardial space and lung tissue where good concentrations (5.4 mcg/g) persist for at least 5 hours.