Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A loading dose is most useful for drugs that are eliminated from the body relatively slowly, i.e. have a long systemic half-life. Such drugs need only a low maintenance dose in order to keep the amount of the drug in the body at the appropriate therapeutic level, but this also means that, without an initial higher dose, it would take a long ...
Continuing the maintenance dose for about 4 to 5 half-lives (t 1/2) of the drug will approximate the steady state level. [1] One or more doses higher than the maintenance dose can be given together at the beginning of therapy with a loading dose. [2] A loading dose is most useful for drugs that are eliminated from the body relatively slowly ...
The method of approach to steady state has also been used to analyze the change in messenger RNA levels when synthesis or degradation changes, and a model has also been reported in which the plateau principle is used to connect the change in messenger RNA synthesis to the expected change in protein synthesis and concentration as a function of time.
In pharmacokinetics, steady state refers to the situation where the overall intake of a drug is fairly in dynamic equilibrium with its elimination. In practice, it is generally considered that once regular dosing of a drug is started, steady state is reached after 3 to 5 times its half-life. In steady state and in linear pharmacokinetics, AUC ...
A physiologic interpretation of clearance (at steady-state) is that clearance is a ratio of the mass generation and blood (or plasma) concentration. Its definition follows from the differential equation that describes exponential decay and is used to model kidney function and hemodialysis machine function:
In pharmacokinetics, the rate of infusion (or dosing rate) refers not just to the rate at which a drug is administered, but the desired rate at which a drug should be administered to achieve a steady state of a fixed dose which has been demonstrated to be therapeutically effective. Abbreviations include K in, [1] K 0, [2] or R 0.
There are various competing calculation methods for the drug accumulation ratio, yielding somewhat different results. A commonly used formula defines R ac as the ratio of the area under the curve (AUC) during a single dosing interval under steady state conditions to the AUC during a dosing interval after one single dose: [1]
In clinical practice, this means that it takes 4 to 5 times the half-life for a drug's serum concentration to reach steady state after regular dosing is started, stopped, or the dose changed. So, for example, digoxin has a half-life (or t 1 / 2 ) of 24–36 h; this means that a change in the dose will take the best part of a week to ...