The Annals of pharmacotherapy
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To longitudinally evaluate unbound and total serum phenytoin concentrations during intravenous phenytoin maintenance dosage and to determine the relationship among phenytoin protein binding, serum albumin, and unbound fatty acid concentrations in patients with head injuries during intensive care unit (ICU) and convalescent care. ⋯ Phenytoin protein binding was significantly correlated with albumin and was more variable in ICU and convalescent patients with brain injuries than in healthy volunteers. The high dosage requirements and subtherapeutic unbound phenytoin concentrations observed during acute care are best explained by increased metabolism. Phenytoin dosage requirements decreased during convalescence.
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Comparative Study
Combining event rates from clinical trials: comparison of Bayesian and classical methods.
To compare an empirical Bayesian, a fully Bayesian, and a classical fixed-effect (Peto) method for pooling event rates from separate epidemiologic studies or clinical trials. ⋯ For the data sets considered, Bayesian methods, which are computer intensive but intuitively appealing, provided results that were consistent with the classic fixed-effect Peto method. Introduction of the more extreme data points did not alter this conclusion.