Postmortem tissue digoxin concentrations in infants and children.

Abstract

The concentrations of digoxin in tissues of premature infants, full-term infants and older children obtained at autopsy were determined by a radioimmunoassay procedure. Infants were found to have much higher concentrations in the right and left ventricle (about 190 ng/g) than older children (about 70 ng/g) and adults as reported in the literature. Renal concentrations were lower in the premature group which may be related to their limited excretory capacity for digoxin. The relatively high myocardial concentrations of digoxin found in this study suggest that the usually recommended doses for infants may be excessive.