Elimination rate constant
value used in pharmacokinetics to calculate the rate at which drugs are removed from the system
The elimination rate constant K or Ke is a value used in pharmacokinetics to describe the rate at which a drug is removed from the human system.
It is often abbreviated K or Ke. It is equivalent to the fraction of a substance that is removed per unit time measured at any particular instant and has units of T−1. This can be expressed mathematically with the differential equation
C
t
+
d
t
=
C
t
−
C
t
⋅
K
⋅
d
t
{\displaystyle C_{t+dt}=C_{t}-C_{t}\cdot K\cdot dt}
,
where
C
t
{\displaystyle C_{t}}
is the blood plasma concentration of drug in the system at a given point in time
t
{\displaystyle t}
,
d
t
{\displaystyle dt}
is an infinitely small change in time, and
C
t
+
d
t
{\displaystyle C_{t+dt}}
is the concentration of drug in the system after the infinitely small change in time.
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