Kinetics of pharmacologic response I. Proposed relationships between response and drug concentration in the intact animal and man

Abstract

An equation is proposed that may often be used to relate the intensity of a pharmacologic response to the concentration of drug in the body fluids of the intact animal or man. Concentrations which are substituted into the equation will usually be those predicted from a mathematical model which has been elaborated from observed drug concentrations. Hypothetical examples of response-time curves are shown. The one compartment open model system is examined extensively, and some interesting relationships of the integral of response to variables are shown. The limitations of estimating rate constants of elimination from plots of duration of response against the logarithm of the dose are indicated. Use of the equation to explain observed data is discussed.