Posted on 11/29/2005 9:59:15 PM PST by neverdem
CHICAGO — Fatter rear ends are causing many drug injections to miss their mark, requiring longer needles to reach buttock muscle, researchers said Monday.
Scientists at The Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, used a CAT scan to follow intramuscular injections in 50 patients, half men and half women, of different sizes and shapes, and found that, on average, almost 70 percent of the dose did not get through the derriere's fatty tissue to reach the muscle.
"It has been taken for granted that once the needle introduces the medicine, it is going to be absorbed and do its job," said Victoria Chan, the lead investigator of the study. "But the majority of medicine never reached the muscle."
The findings were reported Monday at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting in Chicago.
"This may have huge implications," said Chan, who said many drugs, including painkillers, contraceptives and vaccines, are delivered intramuscularly. "No one has ever looked to see whether the medicine actually reaches the muscle."
Some drugs are designed to be delivered into muscle because of its rich supply of blood vessels. Going through fat has always been a safe target because fat tissue is relatively free of blood vessels, nerves and bone that could be damaged by the needle.
Chan and her colleagues used CAT scans to track the trajectory of intramuscular injections through the fatty buttocks. On average, 32 percent of the medicine reached muscle when a standard 1 ¼-inch needle was used. In men, the success rate for injections was 56 percent. In heavy women who typically have more fat in the buttocks area than men, only 8 percent of the dose made its way to the target muscle.
"We didn't expect such astonishingly low numbers," said Chan. "There is no question that obesity is the underlying cause."
She added that the next step is to figure out how much drug was actually absorbed by the body, and whether heavier people were less likely to benefit from the dose given than people who didn't weigh as much.
So, go sub-Q with a different formulation of the med.
It seems to be more of an overlying cause, really...
So what happens with the drugs? They gotta end up somewhere.
Or do they just degrade before they get absorbed in fat?
If no one else answers your questions, ping me before tomorrow's midnight.
What was reported yesterday is that the drug remains stored in the fat.
Wow. Could this mean that some behinds have many toxins stored in them?
Now I know what TBS really stands for (Ted is a nutcase)
What gets administered subcutaneously besides a PPD and the rest of an anergy panel?
Eligard does.
Or do they just degrade before they get absorbed in fat?
Drugs that are more fat soluble will linger in the adipocytes longer, but by either active or passive transport mechanisms, the drugs ought to make it into the circulation eventually and then eliminated by the kidney or liver or combination of the two. You probably won't get a therapeutic dose in the person's circulation with an injection into fat.
More than I remembered. Thanks for the reminder.
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