Open-loop control of drug infusion

摘要

A method of determining a generalised infusion rate profile for the delivery of drugs into the circulation comprising the steps of: (a) infusing a drug at arbitrary but known rates into a group of patients for each of whom the Lean Body Mass has been determined; (b) determining the plasma arterial concentration of the drug in each patient at a number of specific time intervals throughout each infusion period; (c) for each patient, estimating the rates of loss of drug from the circulation at a number of specific time instants by dividing the known infusion rates per Lean Body Mass of these instants by the plasma arterial concentrations of the drug at each of these instants; (d) calculating the average of the estimated rates of loss of drug from the circulation per Lean Body Mass unit at each specific time interval for the group of patients; (e) interpolating the successive average points between the specific time intervals to produce an infusion profile; (f) infusing said drug in accordance with said infusion profile determined from said interpolations into a group of patients for each of whom the Lean Body Mass has been determined, said infusion rate being scaled according to said Lean Body Mass of each patient, and (g) repeating steps (b) to (f) until a desired steady plasma arterial content of the drug is substantially maintained throughout the infusion period.