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Drug levels in the body

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2016

Ian Bruce
Ian Bruce*
Affiliation:
St Peters Collegiate School, Stonyfell, South Australia
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Extract

A recent unfortunate incident in the medical world leads to some interesting mathematics [1]. The incident centred around the half-life of a drug used in treating arthritic people; elderly patients having longer drug half-lives than young people, e.g. due to impaired liver or kidney function. Doses were being repeated before the half-life period of the patient, with a dangerous build-up of the drug in the system, leading to death in some cases. A mathematical model can be developed to describe the normal drug concentration variation with time, and the cumulative effect of repeated doses.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 68 , Issue 444 , June 1984 , pp. 91 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1984

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References

1. New Scientist, 96, No. 1336, p. 707.Google Scholar
2. Notari, R. E., Biopharmaceutics and clinical pharmacokinetics. Dekker.CrossRefGoogle Scholar