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1 Professor of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
Published Online, August 29, 2006. www.theannals.com, DOI 10.1345/aph.1H199
Audience: The intended audience for this guide includes practitioners of clinical pharmacokinetics, as well as instructors, students, and other healthcare professionals.
Purpose: Clinical Pharmacokinetics is intended to be a practical guide to pharmacokinetic applications in routine patient care situations. The book applies basic pharmacokinetic concepts to patient care and is intended to bridge the gap between theory taught in the classroom and practical clinical decision-making.
Content: The first 5 chapters of the book are devoted to a review of fundamental pharmacokinetics concepts and applications to special populations such as the elderly and those who experience renal and liver failure. The review of concepts is quite rudimentary and assumes that the reader has a previous understanding of the conceptual framework of pharmacokinetics at a more in-depth level. Important concepts such as high and low extraction ratios and clearance relationships to protein binding are included, but they seem oddly placed in the chapter on hepatic dysfunction. Subsequent chapters provide overviews of practical considerations for the pharmacokinetics of aminoglycosides, digoxin, theophylline, lithium, antiepileptics, and cyclosporine; a final chapter provides clinical case studies. Most of these chapters include discussions of the therapeutic range, relationships between and evidence for serum concentrations and response/toxicity, general pharmacokinetic parameters, pertinent equations, and selected case studies.
Usability: This book would be an asset to pharmacists in need of a concise review of important practical pharmacokinetic applications. It may also be a nice supplement to students looking for additional reinforcement of pharmacokinetic applications. Those needing additional underpinning of basic pharmacokinetic concepts would be best served by an alternative source with greater depth. Brief lists of key references that include primary up-to-date literature appear at the end of each chapter.
Highlights: The strength of this book is its representation of relevant clinical examples of pharmacokinetic applications. It provides numerous case studies of real-life situations that could be useful to pharmacists and students.
Limitations: As a guide, the overall breadth and depth of information presented in Clinical Pharmacokinetics is relatively limited. Lists of drug interactions and factors impacting pharmacokinetic parameters are concise. Some drugs that are commonly managed pharmacokinetically are not included (eg, vancomycin). Readers in the US should take note that most laboratory values in this book are expressed in international units.
Comparison with Other Related Books: There are relatively few brief guides available for applied pharmacokinetics. This book concisely summarizes the most essential pharmacokinetic principles and provides practical applications of the most commonly observed and important pharmacokinetic clinical problems. More detailed explanations and more thorough lists of examples are available in other texts such as Clinical Pharmacokinetics Pocket Reference and Applied Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics.
Reviewer's Summary: The editors have been successful in making Clinical Pharmacokinetics a quick reference for practical, real-life pharmacokinetic examples. It provides useful abbreviated explanations of concepts and applications for staff pharmacists, residents, and students in need of general overviews and reviews of commonly encountered drug dosing situations. This reference would be a useful supplemental guide for pharmacy students and a helpful addition to pharmacy libraries in patient-care arenas and colleges of pharmacy.
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