RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The serum DL-GLUF enantiomer concentrations and the
time elapsed since ingestion are shown in Fig. 1.
One hour after ingestion, the concentration of D-GLUF
was 191.1m g/ml, almost the same as that of L-GLUF (193.5
m g/ml). In a preliminary experiment, we had confirmed that
the BASTA fluid that the patient swallowed contained these
two enantiomers in equal proportions. It was thus suggested
that there is no difference in the absorption of the two enantiomers
from the digestive tract. However, the D-GLUF level
measured 3 h after ingestion was 60.3m g/ml and that of LGLUF,
52.3m g/ml, so that the former had now become
greater; and 27 and 35 h after ingestion, the D-GLUF level
was still higher than the L-GLUF level.
In our earlier report,8) the patient who drank 100 ml of
BASTA as in the present case exhibited fast elimination of DGLUF
in the first 24 h according to the one-compartment
model of elimination kinetics, whereas the L-GLUF elimination
followed the two-compartment model. Thus, the elimination
half-life of L-GLUF was longer than that of D-GLUF.
We theorized, on the basis of the longer elimination half-life
of L-GLUF, that this substance was involved in the delayed
central nervous symptoms. However, in the present subject, it
cannot be said that the elimination half-life of L-GLUF was
longer. For a study of the difference between the elimination
half-lives of the DL-GLUF enantiomers, it will be necessary
to accumulate data on more such patients.