title: An algorithm for estimating the terminal half-life in pharmacokinetic studies.
abstract: An algorithm is developed for automating the process of identifying the terminal phase in plasma concentration-time curves for non-compartmental estimation of the terminal elimination rate and half-life. The manual process of plotting each curve, selecting the observations in the terminal phase, performing the regressions and plotting the fitted regression lines can be very time-consuming in cases where many curves are to be processed. The algorithm makes use of single-row regression diagnostics to determine the first observed time point in the terminal phase. An example is used to illustrate the calculations, and a simulation study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the algorithm. The algorithm has been implemented in a computer program.
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Division, G.D. Searle & Co., Skokie, IL 60077.
authors.forename: K G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Kowalski
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006207:Half-Life; D008954:Models, Biological; D010599:Pharmacokinetics; D012984:Software