Pharmacokinetics

Dost, Friedrich Hartmut (1910-1985). The original definition of pharmacokinetics published by FH Dost was: "Pharmacokinetics is the study of the quantitative interaction between the organism and the incorporated pharmacon, nothing else" (Dost FH. Grundlagen der Pharmakokinetik, 1968).

A branch of special pharmacology that studies the effect of the organism on a drug administered (the term pharmacokinetics was coined by Friedrich Hartmut Dost). The pharmacokinetic profile of a drug determines the course of concentrations of an active substance and its metabolic products in fluids and tissues of the body. Pharmacokinetic properties of a substance can be subdivided according to the LADME principle:

• L=Liberation (release from the dosage form)
• A=Absorption (absorption from application site into the bloodstream)
• D=Distribution (distribution in the compartments of the organism)
• M=metabolism (metabolization)
• E=excretion (excretion from the organism)

The aim of pharmacokinetics is to describe the temporal course of drug concentrations in the organism and to develop dosage proposals from this (Derendorf M, et al. Pharmakokinetik, 2002)

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