Pharmacokinetics

How it is used

Often shortened to PK, as in 'PK studies' or 'PK parameters' such as half-life, clearance and bioavailability. The four processes are remembered as ADME. As the name of a science it takes a singular verb ('Pharmacokinetics is…'); for one drug's properties, both 'is' and 'are' are used.

Example sentences

1. The pharmacokinetics of this drug change in older patients with reduced kidney function.

2. Pharmacokinetics explains why some drugs are taken once a day and others four times a day.

Common collocations

• pharmacokinetics of a drug
• PK study
• pharmacokinetic parameters
• population pharmacokinetics

Related terms

• absorptionThe movement of a drug from the place where it is given, such as the gut or the skin, into the bloodstream.
• metabolismThe chemical changes that the body, mainly the liver, makes to a drug, usually turning it into substances that are less active and easier to remove.
• eliminationThe removal of a drug from the body through metabolism and excretion, mainly by the kidneys into urine and by the liver into bile.
• half-lifeThe time it takes for the amount or concentration of a drug in the blood to fall to half of its starting level.
• pharmacodynamicsThe study of what a drug does to the body: how it produces its effects, which receptors or targets it acts on and how the effect changes with the dose.

More terms: Pharmacokinetics

• bioavailability
• steady state
• clearance
• first-pass metabolism
• plasma concentration