Pharmacokinetics – Introduction:
Pharmacokinetics, sometimes abbreviated as PK (from Ancient Greek pharmakon “drug” and kinetikos “moving, putting in motion”; see chemical kinetics), is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to determining the fate of substances administered externally to a living organism. The substances of interest include pharmaceutical agents, hormones, nutrients, and toxins. It attempts to discover the fate of a drug from the moment that it is administered up to the point at which it is completely eliminated from the body. Pharmacokinetics describes how the body affects a specific drug after administration through the mechanisms of absorption and distribution, as well as the chemical changes of the substance in the body (e.g. by metabolic enzymes such as cytochrome P450 or glucuronosyltransferase enzymes), and the effects and routes of excretion of the metabolites of the drug. Pharmacokinetic properties of drugs may be affected by elements such as the site of administration and the dose of administered drug. These may affect the absorption rate.[2] Pharmacokinetics is often studied in conjunction with pharmacodynamics, the study of a drug’s pharmacological effect on the body.
Pharmacokinetics:
- Absorption – the process of a substance entering the blood circulation.
- Distribution – the dispersion or dissemination of substances throughout the fluids and tissues of the body.
- Metabolism -the recognition by the organism that a foreign substance is present and the irreversible transformation of parent compounds into daughter metabolites.
- Excretion – the removal of the substances from the body. In rare cases, some drugs irreversibly accumulate in body tissue.
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