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Pharmacokinetic features in forensic medicine.

Wehner HD

Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tuebingen, Naegelestrasse 5, D-72074 Tuebingen, Germany. heinz-dieter.wehner@uni-tuebingen.de

As a rule, the concentration curves of substances in various body volumes, in particular in plasma and blood volume, can be reproduced by a number of exponentional functions. A compartment system can be isomorphically assigned to such a representation in which a mass exchange takes place between the constituent volumes. In forensic medicine (toxicology), the "central compartment model" is used in which an exchange of substances between the blood space (central compartment) and the peripheral spaces (peripheral compartments) takes place. Characteristic parameters of the compartment models are their volumes and the intercompartmental mass flows or their rate constants. They can be determined from the mathematical representations of the concentration curves. It is possible to obtain knowledge on the properties (e.g. permeability) of the convectional/diffusional transcapillary transport on the basis of these parameters.

Published 15 January 2007 in Forensic Sci Int, 165(2): 225-32.
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