IN SUMMARY

The physiological approach for describing the drug elimination process allows the prediction of potential drug-drug interactions, and the changes in the rate of drug elimination due to pathological conditions.

The extraction ratio (E) is a measure of the organ efficiency in eliminating the drug during a single pass through the organ. Drugs with E < 0.3 are classified as low extraction ratio drugs, while drugs with E > 0.7 are classified as high extraction ratio drugs.

Drugs with similar hepatic extraction ratios usually share some common characteristics of how the changes in the physiological parameters such as the intrinsic clearance and liver blood flow affect the overall elimination process.

The elimination rate of low extraction ratio drugs is significantly affected by changes in the intrinsic clearance due to enzyme induction or enzyme inhibition. The elimination rate of these drugs is not affected by changes in liver blood flow.

The elimination rate of high extraction ratio drugs is significantly affected by changes in the liver blood flow due to diseases such as congestive heart failure or drugs that decrease the cardiac output. The bioavailability of these drugs is also affected by changes in the liver blood flow.

The elimination rate of low extraction ratio drugs that are highly bound to plasma protein is significantly affected by changes in the protein binding due to displacement from the binding sites or diseases that affect the protein binding.