Pharm World Sci
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Comparative Study
Relationship between plasma concentrations of morphine and its metabolites and pain in cancer patients.
This study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between the plasma concentration of morphine, morphine-3-glucuronide and morphine-6-glucuronide and pain in cancer patients receiving oral morphine. ⋯ These results indicated that the level of morphine-3-glucuronide is related to the patient's perception of morphine effect, and the plasma concentration of morphine-3-glucuronide and the ratio of morphine-3-glucuronide/morphine indicated potency to assess clinical effect.