Toxicokinetics of Colchicine in Humans: Analysis of Tissue, Plasma and Urine Data in Ten Cases:

1 A specific and sensitive radioimmunoassay was used to study the toxicokinetics of colchicine in seven cases of acute human poisoning. Post-mortem tissue concentrations of colchicine were measured in three further cases.Depending on the time of patient admission, two disposition processes could be observed. The first, in three patients, admitted early, showed a bi-exponential plasma colchicine decrease, with distribution half-lives of 30, 45 and 90 min. The second, in four patients, admitted late, showed a mono-exponential decrease. Plasma terminal half-lives ranged from 10.6 to 31.7 h for both groups.2 Pharmacokinetic analysis of urine colchicine data was performed for two patients. The fraction of unchanged colchicine excreted in urine was about 30%, renal clearance was about 131 h-1 and three-fold less than total body clearance (391 h-1). The apparent volume of distribution was 211 kg-1.3 Post-mortem tissue analysis showed an ubiquitous colchicine distribution. Colchicine accumulated at high concentra...