[Absorption and renal elimination of bismuth from 6 different bismuth salts after a single dosage]

The absorption and renal excretion of bismuth from seven pharmaceutical bismuth preparations was studied in five healthy volunteers. Following a single oral dose of colloidal bismuth subcitrate (CBS), basic bismuth salicylate (BSS), basic bismuth gallate (BSG), basic bismuth carbonate (BSC), bismuth aluminate (BA) and two different basic bismuth nitrate (BSN) preparations, ingested one hour prior to the breakfast, containing 350 mg bismuth in all but one bismuth subnitrate compound, the latter was given in a 1480 mg dose laid on granulated gum karaya, the bismuth serum concentrations (0 to 6 h) and urinary excretion (for 2 days) were measured. Slight amounts of bismuth were rapidly absorbed in all experiments with low transient mean peak concentrations between 0.6 (BSN) and 9.1 micrograms/l (CBS)--reached within 20-60 min--with a wide intra- und interindividual variability. The highest peak serum bismuth concentration was 18 micrograms/l in response to CBS. The median integrated 6-hour serum bismuth concentration after dosing with CBS and BSG was 49 and 32 ng h/ml, respectively, after dosing with BSC, BA, BSS, BSN and BSN1480 13, 11, 3, 0 and 5 ng h/ml, respectively. The values for CBS were significantly greater than after BSS and BSN350. There was a very strong overall correlation between 48-h urinary bismuth excretions and the corresponding integrated 6-hour serum bismuth concentrations (p < 0.001).