1.3 : 약물 농도 대 시간 상관 관계

Plasma drug levels, plotted at regular intervals, help track its time course in the body.

For instance, consider a plot after a single oral dose. The drug concentration rises slowly after absorption and then gradually declines as it undergoes elimination.

Here, C_max represents the highest plasma concentration, while T_max indicates the time required to achieve the maximum concentration or absorption rate. AUC, or area under the curve, represents the amount of drug in the blood.

The minimum effective concentration, or MEC, is the lowest drug concentration needed for therapeutic effects, and the time taken to reach MEC is the onset time.

The plasma concentration above the MEC reflects the intensity of the drug's effect, and the marked period denotes the duration of the effect.

Further, minimum toxic concentration, or MTC, specifies the drug concentration that initiates adverse effects.

The area between MEC and MTC defines the safe and effective dosage range, called the therapeutic window.