an interactive pharmacokinetic simulation program which presents graphical displays of the relationship between dosage regimen and drug plasma levels. This program complements the Drug Disposition Tutorials program ideally and it is recommended that the two be used together as part of a structured teaching program.

Ian Hughes and Chris Bowmer

An easy-to-use, menu-driven program, which allows the user to investigate the pharmacokinetic relationships between the dose regimen of a drug administered to an individual, and the blood plasma concentration. A number of parameters may be selected:

the individual may be "normal", suffering from severe liver damage or suffering severe kidney failure;

a range of drugs are available: amplicillin, digoxin, propranolol, phenytoin, diazepam, lignocaine, quinidine, gentamicin, paracetamol.

different routes of administration: single i.v. dose, single oral dose, repeated i.v. dose, repeated oral dose, continuous i.v. infusion, single sub-cutaneous dose, single i.m. dose.

different dosage regimen: size of the drug dose, duration of the investigation, dose interval, size of any loading dose administered,

Once the program parameters have been selected, the program will calculate the drug plasma concentrations and present, on-screen, a variety of graphical (plasma concentration of drug (y-axis) against time (x-axis) using either linear x-y axes or log y linear x-axes) or numerical outputs. The display also shows recommended upper and lower plasma concentration levels for the chosen drug.

The program is aimed at students of pharmacology on a variety of undergraduate courses e.g. medicine, dentistry and biomedical sciences. The program is supported by printed student-centered exercises.