Similarity or discrepancy in pharmacokinetic parameter estimation between bolus and infusion studies

A recent study by Heatherington and Rowland showing discrepancies in steady-state volume of distribution (Vss) estimation of two barbiturates between bolus and infusion studies in rat hindlimb preparations was reviewed. Their rationale is that increasing the duration of administration may increase the accessibility for tissue distribution and thus increase Vss for compounds showing slow tissue uptake. Such a dosing-duration-dependent distribution concept is, however, inconsistent with the principle in linear kinetics that the fate or disposition function of any drug molecules is independent of time of administration and presence of other molecules. When their well-designed bolus studies were reanalyzed by including extrapolated outflow data from the last sampling time to infinity, the Vss values for the two barbiturates were found to be very similar to those obtained by the infusion method. Our analysis seems to validate a theoretical concept that parameter estimation is independent of the duration of administration in linear kinetics. A potential complication of using the bolus method to study Vss is presented.