Question

A patient needs a drug that has an apparent volume of distribution of 20 L. The plan is to administer a loading dose to reach a target plasma level of 5 microgram/mL. This plasma concentration is the target steady-state concentration, and it will be maintained by subsequent oral maintenance doses. What IV loading dose would be needed to yield that 5 microgram/mL target?

Answer 1

To calculate the IV loading dose needed to reach the target plasma level of 5 microgram/mL, you can use the formula: Dose = Volume of Distribution x Target Plasma Concentration. In this case, the apparent volume of distribution is given as 20 L, so the IV loading dose needed would be 100 micrograms.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the IV loading dose needed to reach the target plasma level, we can use the formula:

Dose = Volume of Distribution x Target Plasma Concentration

In this case, the apparent volume of distribution is given as 20 L and the target plasma concentration is 5 microgram/mL. So, the IV loading dose needed would be:

Dose = 20 L x 5 microgram/mL = 100 micrograms

Therefore, an IV loading dose of 100 micrograms would be needed to yield the target plasma concentration of 5 microgram/mL.