Clinical pharmacy
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A repeated one-point pharmacokinetic model of predicting lithium carbonate doses was evaluated. Six psychiatric inpatients with normal renal function who required lithium therapy were given two 600-mg lithium carbonate test doses 12 hours apart. Serum lithium concentrations were determined 11 hours after each test dose. ⋯ The mean +/- S. D. measured and predicted minimum steady-state serum concentrations for all patients were 1.03 +/- 0.06 meq/liter and 0.97 +/- 0.08 meq/liter, respectively. While further studies are needed to evaluate the method, the repeated one-point pharmacokinetic model provided accurate predictions of lithium carbonate doses in these patients.
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An evaluation and comparison of the accuracy of six published methods for estimating creatinine clearance from serum creatinine concentration in children are presented. The medical records of 59 patients were reviewed. The patients ranged from 1 to 18 years in age and had one or more 24-hour urine creatinine determinations completed. ⋯ The method of Traub and Johnson also showed an equal tendency to overestimate and underestimate creatinine clearance. This method performed well regardless of the patients' weight, sex, or age; the method was not as accurate in children less than 107 cm in height. It is concluded that the method of Traub and Johnson for estimating creatinine clearance from serum creatinine concentration is the most accurate and nonbiased of the evaluation methods.