title: Non-compartmental estimation of pharmacokinetic parameters for flexible sampling designs.
abstract: Pharmacokinetic (PK) studies aim to understand the kinetics of absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination of a drug. Typically, such studies involve measuring the concentration of the drug in the plasma or blood at several time points after drug administration. In studying the PK behaviour, either the non-compartmental approach or alternatively a modelling approach can be utilized. Traditionally, the non-compartmental approach makes minimal assumptions about the data-generating process but requires the data to be collected in a very structured way. Conversely, the modelling approach depends heavily on assumptions about the data-generating process but does not impose a specific data structure. In this paper, we will discuss non-compartmental methods for estimating the area under the concentration versus time curve and other common PK parameters that use minimal assumptions about the data structure making it applicable to a wide range of PK studies. We will evaluate the methods using simulation and give an illustrative example.
authors.affiliation: Medical and Pharmaceutical Research Unit, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK. jaki.thomas@gmail.com
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jaki
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Wolfsegger
mesh_terms: D047228:Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Blockers / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D019540:Area Under Curve; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003198:Computer Simulation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010599:Pharmacokinetics; D012107:Research Design / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D047228:Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Blockers; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents