Chapter 2 - Clinical Pharmacokinetics

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses various aspects of clinical pharmacokinetics (PK). PK is an important tool when conducting both basic and applied research and is an essential component of the drug development process. PK is a valuable adjunct for prescribing and evaluating drug therapy. The rationale for measuring concentrations of drugs in plasma, serum, or blood is that concentration–response relationships are often less variable than dose–response relationships. Additional clinical information is often necessary to interpret drug-concentration measurements that are otherwise equivocal. Drug-concentration monitoring is most helpful for the drugs that have a low therapeutic index and that have no clinically observable effects that can be easily monitored to guide dose adjustment. PK provides the scientific basis of dose selection, and the process of dose regimen design can be used to illustrate with a single-compartment model the basic concepts of apparent distribution volume, elimination half-life, and elimination clearance. Laplace transform methods are also helpful in PK when convolution/deconvolution methods are used to characterize drug absorption processes.