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I am a veterinary internist who is interested in evaluating warfarin for
clinical use in cats with thromboembolic disease. Toward that end,
I have recently completed data collection in a study on the
pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of warfarin in normal
cats. We applied the classical analysis (according to Nagashima
et al, 1969) to our data, and achieved a relationship between the
decline in P and time that was very much like that described for
humans. We then derived the degradation constant of P from the
slope of the plot of P vs. time. The kd=EDs were very consistent
between individuals, as was reported from humans. We calculated
Rsyn according to the Nagashima method, and then plotted Rsyn
against log[warfarin]. We have a small problem with
these plots though, and wondered if anyone else had a comment
on this problem.
During the time period where P was declining, Rnet was a
negative number sometimes of amplitude larger than Rdeg, so the
calculation for Rsyn yielded a negative number as well. When we
plotted Rsyn vs log[warfarin] for points in the time period when an
anticoagulant effect was apparent, we got a good linear-log
relationship, but =87 to 2/3 of the points were Rsyn<0 (ie negative).
In the Nagashima paper they only report Rsyn=EDs that were positive.
Do you think our analysis is appropriate (ie does the
classical analysis only include the Rsyn vs log[warfarin] points
where Rsyn>0) or does it sound to you like we have made an error
somewhere? It makes sense to me that Rsyn would be negative
during the time period where P is declining, but these plots
resulted in Cpmax and Cpmin that were quite
close to one another. Could this be just a species difference?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions you might pass on.
Stephanie A. Smith DVM, MS
Senior Resident, Small Animal Internal Medicine
Kansas State University
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To Stephanie: I have been involved for several years in modeling patients
response to warfarin and have a program that could be used to directly model
your cat data and predict future dosage adjustments ( DrugCalc). This is a
bayesian forecaster that use s a modified model of theophanous and barille .
If you are interested please contact me at thertch.-at-.aol.com. Dennis Mungall,
Pharm.D. , Associate Director of Clinical pharmacology and Research, TMH
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The Nagashima et al. method is indeed classical but also not to be trusted.
It relies on the awful
log-conc response model that cannot predict either end of the actual
response relationship and is only
valid over 60% of the response range.
I suggest you reconsider your data with something like an emax model e.g.
Holford NHG. Clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of warfarin.
Understanding the dose-effect
relationship. Clinical Pharmacokinetics 1986; 11:483-504
--
Nick Holford, Dept Neurology, L226
OHSU,3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Rd,Portland,OR 97201,USA
n.holford.aaa.auckland.ac.nz tel:+1 (503) 494-7228 fax:494-7242
http://www.phm.auckland.ac.nz/Staff/NHolford/nholford.htm
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Copyright 1995-2010 David W. A. Bourne (david@boomer.org)