Pharmacokinetics (in Greek: "pharmacon" meaning drug, and "kinetikos" meaning putting in motion) is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to the determination of the fate of substances administered externally to a living organism. In practice, this discipline is applied mainly to drug substances, though in principle it concerns itself with all manner of compounds ingested or otherwise delivered externally to an organism, such as nutrients, metabolites, hormones, toxins, etc. Pharmacokinetics is often divided into several areas including, but not limited to, the extent and rate of Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Excretion. This sometimes is referred to as the ADME scheme. Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmacon (φάρμακον) meaning drug, and logos (λόγος) meaning science) is the study of how substances interact with living organisms to produce a change in function. ... ADME is an acronym in pharmacokinetics and pharmacology for Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion, and describes the disposition of a pharmaceutical compound within an animal or human body. ...

Absorption is a substance entering the body. Distribution is the dispersion or dissemination of substances throughout the fluids and tissues of the body. Metabolism is the transformation of the substances and its daughter metabolites. Excretion is the elimination of the substances from the body. In rare cases, some drugs irreversibly accumulate in a tissue in the body. In pharmacology (and more specifically pharmacokinetics), absorption is the movement of a drug into the bloodstream. ... Distribution in pharmacology is a branch of pharmacokinetics describing reversible transfer of drug from one location to another within the body. ... A few of the metabolic pathways in a cell. ... Excretion is the process of eliminating waste products of metabolism and other materials that are of no use. ...

Pharmacokinetics is often studied in conjunction with pharmacodynamics. So while pharmacodynamics explores what a drug does to the body, pharmacokinetics explores what the body does to the drug. Pharmacodynamics is the study of the biochemical and physiological effects of drugs and the mechanisms of drug action and the relationship between drug concentration and effect. ... Pharmacodynamics is the study of the biochemical and physiological effects of drugs and the mechanisms of drug action and the relationship between drug concentration and effect. ...

See also

• blood alcohol concentration
• half-life
• bioavailability
• toxicokinetics

Blood Alcohol Content (or Blood Alcohol Concentration), often abbreviated BAC, is the concentration of alcohol in blood, measured, by volume, as a percentage. ... Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ... In pharmacology, bioavailability is used to describe the fraction of an administered dose of unchanged drug that reaches the systemic circulation, one of the principal pharmacokinetic properties of drugs. ... Toxicokinetics is the application of pharmacokinetics to determine the relationship between the systemic exposure of a compound in experimental animals and its toxicity. ...

External Links

QSAR World [1]

A basic online course courtesy of Dr. David W. A. Bourne, OU College of Pharmacy [2]

Computer program package for analyzing pharmacokinetic data. [3]