[Bioavailability of glycerol trinitrate (nitroglycerin) from an ointment preparation]

After application of an ointment of glycerol trinitrate (nitroglycerin, Nitrofortin; in the following briefly called GTN) the bioavailability of the unchanged GTN was evaluated. For that purpose a gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric method was employed, the only method which guarantees the selectivity and sensitivity necessary for this kind of studies. In this respect selectivity means that only the unchanged drug is determined and degradation and/or biotransformation products are measured only if needed. Considering the well-known tremendous inter-individual variations, which are quite common in studies with this compound, and the associated problems of getting statistically relevant data the study was performed on 12 volunteers. Detectable GTN-levels were obtained up to 48 h after application, maximum plasma levels (836.1 +/- 124.2 pg/ml) were reached after 1.37 +/- 1.55 h. 12 h after application plasma concentrations of 154 +/- 20 pg/ml were observed which decreased to 65 +/- 13 pg/ml after 24 h.