Early Exposure of Fosphenytoin, Levetiracetam, and Valproic Acid After High-Dose Intravenous Administration in Young Children With Benzodiazepine-Refractory Status Epilepticus

Abhishek G. Sathe, Usha Mishra, Vijay Ivaturi, Richard C. Brundage, James C. Cloyd, Jordan J. Elm, James M. Chamberlain, Robert Silbergleit, Jaideep Kapur, Daniel H. Lowenstein, Shlomo Shinnar, Hannah R. Cock, Nathan B. Fountain, Lynn Babcock, Lisa D. Coles

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3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Fosphenytoin (FOS) and its active form, phenytoin (PHT), levetiracetam (LEV), and valproic acid (VPA) are commonly used second-line treatments of status epilepticus. However, limited information is available regarding LEV and VPA concentrations following high intravenous doses, particularly in young children. The Established Status Epilepticus Treatment Trial, a blinded, comparative effectiveness study of FOS, LEV, and VPA for benzodiazepine-refractory status epilepticus provided an opportunity to investigate early drug concentrations. Patients aged ≥2 years who continued to seizure despite receiving adequate doses of benzodiazepines were randomly assigned to FOS, LEV, or VPA infused over 10 minutes. A sparse blood-sampling approach was used, with up to 2 samples collected per patient within 2 hours following drug administration. The objective of this work was to report early drug exposure of PHT, LEV, and VPA and plasma protein binding of PHT and VPA. Twenty-seven children with median (interquartile range) age of 4 (2.5-6.5) years were enrolled. The total plasma concentrations ranged from 69 to 151.3 μg/mL for LEV, 11.3 to 26.7 μg/mL for PHT and 126 to 223 μg/mL for VPA. Free fraction ranged from 4% to 19% for PHT and 17% to 51% for VPA. This is the first report in young children of LEV concentrations with convulsive status epilepticus as well as VPA concentrations after a 40 mg/kg dose. Several challenges limited patient enrollment and blood sampling. Additional studies with a larger sample size are required to evaluate the exposure-response relationships in this emergent condition.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)763-768
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Clinical Pharmacology
Volume61
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The American College of Clinical Pharmacology

Keywords

  • central nervous system (CNS)
  • clinical pharmacology (CPH)
  • clinical trials (CTR)
  • emergency medicine (EME)
  • exposure-response
  • neurology (NEU)
  • pediatrics (PED)
  • pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism
  • protein binding
  • sparse sampling

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