Amiodarone dosage selection for refractory ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation requires careful application of pharmacokinetic principles to minimize the drug's significant toxicity.
Understanding the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of amiodarone is crucial for appropriate dosage selection to manage refractory ventricular arrhythmias while minimizing significant toxicity.
B arbey JT, W oosley RL: Pharmacokinetic approach to amiodarone dosage selection . Pharma‐cokinetics is the study of the time course of drug absorption, distribution, metabolisrn, and excretion. Pharmaco‐ dynamics is the study of the effects and mechanism of action of drugs. From these definitions it becomes apparent that the relation between drug dose and effect can be modified by pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic factors. A knowledge of both becomes important when treating a life‐threatening disease with a potentially toxic drug. Such is the case with amiodarone, a drug with significant toxicity recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of refractory recurrent ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation. The purpose of this review is to summarize what is known about selected aspects of the pharmacology of amiodarone and how this knowledge can influence the selection of dosages .
Barbey et al. (1986) studied this question. Amiodarone dosage selection for refractory ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation requires careful application of pharmacokinetic principles to minimize the drug's significant toxicity.
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