title: Kinetic analysis of bacterial clearance in mice using the ESTRIPc and KINET microcomputer programs.
abstract: Two BASIC microcomputer programs, ESTRIPc and KINET, were used to analyze the kinetics of bacterial clearance from the blood and mesenteric lymph nodes of mice. Because of the similarities between the clearance of bacteria and the clearance of drugs from tissue, blood pharmacokinetic techniques were applied to the analysis of bacterial clearance data. The ESTRIPc program, developed for pharmacokinetic analysis and modified for the study of bacterial clearance, was employed to fit the experimental data of bacterial survival versus time to a polyexponential equation with 1, 2, or 3 terms. The KINET program, written specifically for kinetic analysis of bacterial clearance, uses the biexponential equation constants derived with ESTRIPc to calculate half-life values, rate constants, and other useful kinetic parameters. The combined use of these programs permits precise comparisons of the clearance rates of different bacterial species from the blood or tissues of experimental animals.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001770:Blood Bactericidal Activity; D003201:Computers; D007700:Kinetics; D008657:Metabolic Clearance Rate; D051379:Mice; D018805:Sepsis / Q000503:physiopathology*