Bromocriptine concentration in saliva plasma after long-term treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease

Salivary and plasma concentrations of bromocriptine (BCT), a dopamine agonist, were measured by gas chromatography in four patients with Parkinson's disease. All the patients had been on mono-therapy with BCT for years, and during the 3 weeks prior to the investigation they received constant but individually different dosage regimens. Paired samples of pure, parotid, serous saliva and of blood were collected hourly during one eight hour dose interval. The concentrations of BCT in saliva were very low and there was a ten-fold range in the areas under the salivary and plasma concentration/time curves. It is concluded that in clinical practice measurement of BCT in saliva is not suitable for exact estimation of the plasma concentration of BCT. Using the measured salivary pH and the plasma BCT concentration, calculations based on the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation showed that the assumption of about 99% plasma protein binding of BCT best fited the observed concentrations of BCT in saliva.