Summary
Glycerol 50 g infused i. v. over 2 to 6 h is widely used to treat cerebral oedema in patients with acute stroke. Its transit through the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier in subjects with uninflamed meninges has now been examined. In 7 patients with an external ventriculostomy for occlusive hydrocephalus, each of whom was given 500 ml of a 10% solution IV over 4 h, serum and CSF were repeatedly sampled during and after the infusion and glycerol was measured enzymatically.
The highest serum glycerol level of 191–923 mg/l was observed at the end of the infusion. The maximum CSF glycerol of 18.7–110.8 mg/l was attained 0–1 h after the end of the infusion. Elimination both from serum and CSF approximated a single-exponential decay; the elimination half-life from serum was 0.29–0.56 h compared to 1.03–3.68 h from CSF. In six of the seven cases there was a temporary reversal of the serum/CSF concentration gradient during glycerol elimination. The ratios of the AUCs of CSF and serum, which describe the overall penetration of glycerol into CSF, ranged from 0.09–0.31.
In conclusion, the serum level of glycerol produced by giving 50 g IV glycerol over 4 h may not be sufficiently high reliably dehydrate to brain tissue in many patients, and the slow elimination of glycerol from the CSF may be related to the so-called rebound phenomenon.
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Nau, R., Prins, FJ., Kolenda, H. et al. Temporary reversal of serum to cerebrospinal fluid glycerol concentration gradient after intravenous infusion of glycerol. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 42, 181–185 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00278481
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00278481