Kinetics of N-acetylprocainamide deacetylation

The kinetics of N-acetylprocainamide (NAPA) deacetylation to procainamide (PA) were determined in a normal subject using NAPA-13C, labeled in the acetyl group. The deacetylation clearance of NAPA (ClD) was found to be 6.5 ml/min whereas total NAPA elimination clearance was 231 ml/min, so that 2.8% of the administered NAPA-13C was metabolized by deacetylation. This estimated of ClD was shown to be representative of the rate of NAPA deacetylation in four patients on long-term NAPA therapy. Steady-state [PA]/[NAPA] ratios averaged 0.024, but would be expected to rise to 0.057 if functionally anephric patients were treated with NAPA. Despite reports that patients with the PA-induced systemic lupus erythematosus-like reaction have had symptomatic and immunologic remission when switched to NAPA, the demonstration that NAPA is deacetylated to PA indicates that the apparently greater immunologic safety of NAPA may be relative rather than absolute.