Pharmacokinetics: Principles and Applications

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Spring 2002 by Das, Sudip K

MEHDI BOROUJERDI. Pharmacokinetics: Principles and Applications. New York, NY.' McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2002. xix 420 pp., 123 figs., 88 tbls., $ 49.00.

In the present era of pharmacy education, a paradigm shift is occurring in teaching from the classical to more applied and clinically oriented pharmacokinetics and biopharmaceutics, and this particular text could make a significant impact in this aspect. Although a number of other pharmacokinetics texts are available, no single text may fulfill the students' needs completely in the clinical application areas, therefore this text could suitably eliminate the voids and present a complete picture.

The text consists of eighteen chapters. Every chapter starts with a famous quote from ancient times. A set of objectives is provided at the beginning of each chapter that relates topics covered to educational and/or professional outcomes. The preliminary chapter deals with the mathematical background in detail. Although the author intended to keep the mathematical principles at an elementary level, this chapter gives a fairly exhaustive overview of the mathematical tools required for pharmacokinetics at the professional as well as beginning graduate student level. In spite of the fact that Laplace transforms may help simplify differential equations, it may not be a very easy concept to grasp at the undergraduate level.

Chapters two through five cover the salient aspects of biopharmaceutics. The author deserves credit in compiling these chapters covering absorption (A), distribution (D), excretion (E) and a brief discussion on metabolism (M). The discussions on ADE have been written in an easily understandable way with some interesting examples. The biopharmaceutics part preceding the pharmacokinetic principles is one of the plus points of this text as it provides a good structure and background, whereas in most other texts this part is normally merged with pharmacokinetic analysis.

Chapters six through ten deal with one compartment model with bolus, zero order and first order inputs, urinary data analysis and multiple dosing. However, it would have been helpful if there were more discussions on the physiological as well as the clinical significance of the pharmacokinetic terms in these chapters. Each of these chapters have application sections that include solved examples which would be helpful to the students, followed by assignments with answers at the end of the text.

Chapters eleven through thirteen discuss linear two-compartment model with bolus administration, multiple dosing and first order input and first order disposition. Discussions on pharmacokinetic parameters have been narrated under separate sub headings. These will be helpful to practicing clinicians for quick review in case of immediate interest. Similar to earlier chapters, a number of solved examples are provided with more assignment problems and answers at the end.

Chapters fourteen and fifteen give an overview of some important pharmacokinetic parameters that would be very useful to clinicians for dose adjustments, including renally impaired patients and the effect of dialysis on the pharmacokinetics of a drug. The solved examples are representative of real life situations. These two chapters will be very helpful in clinical pharmacokinetics.

Chapter sixteen has been written from the viewpoint of establishing bioavailability and bioequivalence of drugs and formulations. The concepts have been explained with the official definitions from CFR and FDA. Chapters seventeen and eighteen deal with non-compartmental approaches based on statistical moments and pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling, respectively. These two chapters are directed towards first year level graduate students.

Overall, I find this text to be a valuable inclusion in the PharmD curriculum at the very basic level to make the students more clinically proficient. It might appear that too many mathematical treatments have been provided, however, there are a number of intermediate steps worked out that would be really helpful to the mathematically challenged student. The assignment questions at the end of each chapter will be helpful for advanced students, residents and fellows in their preliminary career preparation. An appendix with suggestions of useful computer software and web sites could have been a helpful addition.

Sudip K. Das

Idaho State University