Question

You are asked to work with a team of healthcare professionals to review the emergency medications used in a code blue. One medication, atropine, is often administered as a single intravenous bolus dose. While reviewing the pharmacokinetics of atropine, you identify that atropine has an elimination half- life of 2.7 hours and a volume of distribution of 370 L. Your hospital protocols also suggest atropine is administered as a 1 mg intravenous injection and that teh duration of resuscitation efforts last for 45 minutes on average. What is the expected concentration (in units of ug/L) of atropine in the patient's plasma 45 minutes after the single 1 mg intravenous dose?

Answer 1

A = Ao e^-kt

k = 0.693/ t1/2

t1/2 = 2.7 hours

k=0.693/2.7

k= 0.26

Ao= 1000 /370 = 2.7 microgram/L

A = 2.7 e^-(0.26*0.75)

A= 2.7 * 0.82 = 2.21 microgram/L.