The oral anticoagulant warfarin is clinically administered as a racemic mixture of two enantiomers, (R) and (S). Many relevant drug interactions with warfarin have been attributed to the specific metabolic inhibition of the elimination of the more pharmacologically active (S)-enantiomer. To investigate reports that acetaminophen can potentiate the anticoagulant effect of warfarin, 20 healthy male volunteers were each given single oral 20 mg doses of racemic warfarin on three separate occasions: (1) alone, (2) after 1 day of acetaminophen (4 g/d), and (3) after 2 weeks of acetaminophen (4 g/d). The urinary excretion pattern of acetaminophen and its metabolites was not significantly altered over its course of administration. The (R)- and (S)-enantiomers of warfarin exhibited significantly different pharmacokinetic properties. However, acetaminophen did not alter the disposition of either (R)- or (S)-warfarin. All subjects exhibited a pharmacodynamic response to racemic warfarin. The response was not significantly altered in the presence of acute or chronic acetaminophen dosing, as assessed by prothrombin time and factor VII concentrations.

A considerable amount of salicylic acid may be absorbed through the skin after topical application of methyl salicylate products and this may increase with multiple applications. Caution is warranted in patients for whom systemic salicylate may be hazardous or problematic.

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J.M., a healthy, 25-year-old male, volunteered for a study involving warfarin and acetaminophen. Acetaminophen 1 g four times a day was started for 21 days. Liver function tests taken at regular intervals for the first 12 days were unremarkable. On day 18, however, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) was 527 IU/liter and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) was 166 IU/liter. Acetaminophen was discontinued and serum transaminase levels returned to baseline levels two weeks later (AST = 26, ALT = 20). Analysis of J.M.'s urine samples over the first 18 days showed excretion patterns of glucuronide, sulfate, and glutathione derived cysteine and mercapturic acid conjugates were similar to the other subjects in the study. Acetaminophen causes hepatotoxicity in overdose or malnourished or alcoholic patients, none of which applied to our subject. Differences in metabolic activation and capacity for glutathione synthesis can predispose individuals given therapeutic doses of acetaminophen to adverse effects. Failure to detoxify a highly reactive metabolite, formed by P-450 metabolism, via glutathione conjugation is responsible for the development of acute hepatic necrosis. Accumulation of the toxic metabolite due to depleted glutathione stores may have occurred with prolonged high dosing in our subject and been responsible for his abnormal rise in liver enzymes.