Pharmacokinetics Flashcards
Where does the majority of drug metabolism occur?
Liver
Where does drug excretion occur?
Kidneys
What is the pharmaceutical process and what does it depend on?
If the drug is getting into the patient
Depends on: formulation and compliance
Rate of action depends on …
Dissolution
What is topical administration?
Giving the drug directly to the target (eg. Inhaled steroids for asthma)
What are the advantages of topical administration?
Less systemic absorption
Less off-target (side) effects
Define oral bioavailability
The proportion of drug given orally (or any route except IV) that reaches circulation unchanged
What is the formula for bioavailability?
(AUC oral / AUC injected) x100
AUC = area under curve where x=time, y=plasma conc of drug
What is the formula for therapeutic ratio?
LD50 / ED50
Maximum tolerated dose / minimum effective dose
Does warfarin have a narrow or wide therapeutic window, and what does this mean?
Narrow
Easy to produce unwanted effects
Define toxic concentration
The concentration that starts to produce unwanted, adverse effects
Which drugs are less likely to reach toxic conc, fast or slow release?
Slow release
With fast release drugs the conc rises very rapidly
Describe first pass metabolism
Drugs administered orally are exposed to the liver first and may be extensively metabolised. This means much less drug is received by the systemic circulation.
Name alternative routes that avoid first pass metabolism
Parenteral (IV, IM, SC)
Rectal
Sublingual
Define volume of drug distribution
The theoretical value into which drug is distributed if this occurred instantaneously
How do we obtain the value for volume of distribution?
Extrapolation of the plasma drug concentrations on a graph back to time zero
Protein binding interactions are important when the object drug:
Is highly bound to albumin
Has a small volume of distribution
Has a low therapeutic ratio