A method for the analytical determination of metronidazole concentrations in biological tissues was developed using high performance liquid chromatography. The procedure was employed to investigate the pharmacokinetics of metronidazole in dogs following intravenous and oral administration (44 mg/kg). The overall elimination rate constant beta was 0.0027 +/- 0.0005 min-1, the apparent specific volume of distribution (V'd) was 0.948 +/- 0.096 L/kg overall clearance (ClB) was 2.49 +/- 0.54 ml/kg/min and the rate constant for absorption Kab was 0.0456 +/- 0.0353 min-1. Oral bioavailability was high but variable (59%-100%). Implications of these data for chemotherapy of infections caused by anaerobic bacteria, trichomonads, and Giardia and for the sensitization of hypoxic neoplastic cells to radiotherapy are discussed.