Pharmacokinetics of 125I-hirudin in rats and dogs.

Hirudin was 125I-labelled using a modified chloramine-T method. 125I-hirudin proved to be a suitable marker in pharmacokinetic studies, if unchanged 125I-hirudin in body fluids was determined by means of a binding assay using immobilized thrombin. In rats and dogs a study was performed on the pharmacokinetic behaviour of hirudin following intravenous and subcutaneous injection, resp., or one-hour infusion and pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated.