Answer 1: Pharmacokinetic features: selection of therapeutic drugs

20 June, 2018

 

 

 

Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) features are used to evaluate both dose and schedule of antimicrobials, as well as to compare in a scientifically valid way both within and between classes of drugs. It is now recognized that each class of drug has a PD goal of therapy. For example, the most common dynamic parameter linked to outcome following fluoroquinolone therapy is the AUC/MIC ratio. It is possible to calculate the size of this ratio that will result in a predicted outcome, whether it would be a 1-log drop in the number of organisms at a primary infection site, the probability of a good clinical or microbiological outcome, or the value required to minimize the emergence of resistance. The question is then raised as to how well a specific dose of drug will achieve these goals. This is influenced by a number of factors including how an individual patient handles the drug, the target pathogens, and the amount of protein binding.