How does Cmax decrease over time in human body? Use half life?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the pharmacokinetics of a supplement, specifically how the concentration of the substance (Cmax) decreases over time in the human body, using the concept of half-life. Participants explore calculations related to drug dosage, concentration over time, and the implications of body weight on these calculations.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Mathematical reasoning
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant presents initial values for a supplement, including molar mass, Tmax, Cmax, and half-life, and seeks to calculate the concentration after 5 days of dosing.
  • Another participant suggests that initial concentration can be approximated based on body mass and emphasizes the need for calculations to account for variability in data.
  • Some participants propose that Cmax decreases in a manner consistent with half-life, providing a series of calculations to illustrate this decay over several days.
  • There is a discussion about the difference between Cmax in ng/ml and dosage in ng/ml, questioning whether these values are consistent across different test subjects.
  • A later reply challenges the method of dividing by blood volume, suggesting that body mass should be used instead, which could yield similar results.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the calculations and assumptions regarding drug concentration and body mass. There is no consensus on the accuracy of the methods used or the implications of the results.

Contextual Notes

Participants note that the half-life of a drug may not remain constant over extended periods and that factors such as metabolism and excretion could influence the calculations. Additionally, the discussion highlights the importance of considering individual variability in body mass when performing pharmacokinetic calculations.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be useful for individuals interested in pharmacokinetics, drug dosing calculations, and the effects of body mass on drug concentration in the human body.

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TL;DR
Does Cmax decrease over time relative to the half life?
I'm interested in chemistry but it's all new for me and I'm just starting out. I tried to do some calculations but got stuck...

I was wondering, for example a supplement has the following values:

Molar mass: 306.247 g mol-1

Tmax 2-4 hours

Cmax 363.3 ng / ml

Half life: 11.21 hours

How do you calculate the ng / ml after 5 days at dosing 100mg? Since that 363 ng/ml is at the peak between 2-4 hours if I'm not mistaken?

If you use the half life calculation you get a value of ~0.097mg in the system but I assume that it differs per ml for how much someone weighs? Someone at 80kg is probably different then 100kg?
 
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Welcome to PF.

Is this question for your schoolwork? What references have you been reading about this to try to answer your question? (links please, thanks)
 
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berkeman said:
Welcome to PF.

Is this question for your schoolwork? What references have you been reading about this to try to answer your question? (links please, thanks)
Sorry, It was an article I read https://www.sportknowhowxl.nl/nieuw...dse-amateursporter-een-makkelijke-dopingprooi

it is saying the girl has used doping 5 days ago. The drug is not allowed in compeititon but she still got banned because there was some in the system. I tried to figure out how that works but got stuck with calculating what could be it.

It was very early for me so didnt read the second part correctly, but I've been trying to calculate it myself, see below. What I have been reading is a couple of studies and aditional websites

elimination of half life: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topic...s-and-molecular-biology/elimination-half-life
pharmacokinetics:
half life: https://derangedphysiology.com/main/cicm-primary-exam/required-reading/pharmacokinetics/Chapter 322/half-life
short introduction to pharmacokietics: https://www.europeanreview.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/6.pdf
for blood volume: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29873728/
the compound:

and this is my thought process:
If I'm not mistaken Cmax decreases with the same speed as the half-life so if you start with the 363.3 at the start.

Half-life 11h - Cmax 363.3
Monday: 363.3 - 181.5 ng/ml
Tuesday: 90.825 - 45.412 ng/ml
Wednesday: 22.706 - 11.353 ng/ml
Thursday: 5.676 - 2.838 ng/ml
Friday: 1.419 - 0.709 ng/mlCan also you calculate it also like this?:
Half-life 11h - dosage 100mg
Monday: 100 - 50 mg
Tuesday: 25 - 12.5 mg
Wednesday: 6.25 - 3.125 mg
Thursday: 1.562 - 0.7812 mg
Friday: 0.097 - 0.0488 mgAssume you have 6 liter blood, can you calculate it that way back to ng/ml?

0.0488 mg per 6 liter > (/6) > 0.00813 mg/l >(*1000) > 8.13 ng/ml

There is a big difference between Cmax ng/ml and the dosage ng/ml. Am I missing something? Or is that differences based on the test subject when they tested the Cmax of 363.3?

Of course there is lots of information missing but is the thinking process correct this way? And one small detail, are we always talking about mg/ml in your system or in your urine. Is that always the same or is there a delay?

if you have any other additional questions, please let me know
 
Last edited:
If Tmax is 2-4 hours and you ask for 5 days (120 hours) you can probably safely ignore initial changes and assume initial concentration at t=0 to be 100 mg/body mass, then it is just an exponential decay with the given half life. Note that all data given are given as ranges, so at best you do calculations twice, assuming best/worst case scenario, and say "final concentration after five days should be somewhere between xxx and yyy".

And while that'll be better than nothing it won't be necessarily true. Half life of a drug doesn't have to be constant over long period of time, especially if it disappears due to some combination of metabolism and excretion.
 
berkeman said:
Welcome to PF.

Is this question for your schoolwork? What references have you been reading about this to try to answer your question? (links please, thanks)
Sorry, It was an article I read https://www.sportknowhowxl.nl/nieuw...dse-amateursporter-een-makkelijke-dopingprooi
it is saying the girl has used doping 5 days ago. The drug is not allowed in compeititon but she still got banned because there was some in the system. I tried to figure out how that works but got stuck with calculating what could be it.
Borek said:
If Tmax is 2-4 hours and you ask for 5 days (120 hours) you can probably safely ignore initial changes and assume initial concentration at t=0 to be 100 mg/body mass, then it is just an exponential decay with the given half life. Note that all data given are given as ranges, so at best you do calculations twice, assuming best/worst case scenario, and say "final concentration after five days should be somewhere between xxx and yyy".

And while that'll be better than nothing it won't be necessarily true. Half life of a drug doesn't have to be constant over long period of time, especially if it disappears due to some combination of metabolism and excretion.
That makes sense!

If I'm not mistaken Cmax decreases with the same speed as the half-life so if you start with the 363.3 at the start.

Half-life 11h
Monday: 363.3 - 181.5 ng/ml
Tuesday: 90.825 - 45.412 ng/ml
Wednesday: 22.706 - 11.353 ng/ml
Thursday: 5.676 - 2.838 ng/ml
Friday: 1.419 - 0.709 ng/ml

Can also you calculate it also like this?:
Half-life 11h - dosage 100mg
Monday: 100 - 50 mg
Tuesday: 25 - 12.5 mg
Wednesday: 6.25 - 3.125 mg
Thursday: 1.562 - 0.7812 mg
Friday: 0.097 - 0.0488 mg

Assume you have 6 liter blood, can you calculate it that way back to ng/ml?

0.0488 mg per 6 liter > (/6) > 0.00813 mg/l >(*1000) > 8.13 ng/ml

There is a big difference between Cmax ng/ml and the dosage ng/ml. Am I missing something? Or is that differences based on the test subject when they tested the Cmax of 363.3?

Of course there is lots of information missing but is the thinking process correct this way? And one small detail, are we always talking about mg/ml in your system or in your urine. Is that always the same or is there a delay?
 
Last edited:
Drugs dissolve in tissues and blood, so dividing by 6L is wrong - but if you divide by 60 kg of body mass (which is approx 60L), you will get very similar numbers.
 

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