Clinical pharmacokinetics worksheet with answers

Free printable Clinical pharmacokinetics worksheet: 6 problems from easy to exam level, with an answer key. Print it or save it as a PDF.

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1.Easy
t/t½C/Css (%)100%597%

Practice exercise (made-up values, not clinical guidance). A patient starts regular doses of gentamicin, which has a half-life of 2 h. Using the rule that steady state is reached after about five half-lives, after how many hours tss is steady state reached?

t½ = 2 h
tss = h
2.Easy
Vd = 0.3 L/kgC = 10 mg/LLD = ?59 kg

Practice exercise (made-up values, not clinical guidance). A patient who weighs 59 kg needs a loading dose of tobramycin to reach a level of 10 mg/L straight away. The volume of distribution is 0.3 L/kg. Find the loading dose LD in mg.

59 kgVd = 0.3 L/kgC = 10 mg/L
LD = mg
3.Medium
Vd = 0.5 L/kgC = 15 mg/LLD = ? mg80 kg · S = 0.8 · F = 1

Practice exercise (made-up values, not clinical guidance). An 80 kg patient is to be loaded intravenously with aminophylline to reach a theophylline level of 15 mg/L. The volume of distribution is 0.5 L/kg and the salt factor is S = 0.8. Find the loading dose LD of aminophylline in mg.

80 kgVd = 0.5 L/kgC = 15 mg/LS = 0.8
LD = mg
4.Medium
110100t (h)C (mg/L)1 h9 mg/L5 h2.3 mg/L

Practice exercise (made-up values, not clinical guidance). After an IV dose of gentamicin, the level is 9 mg/L at 1 h and 2.3 mg/L at 5 h. Assume first-order elimination. Find the elimination rate constant k.

C1 = 9 mg/L (1 h)C2 = 2.3 mg/L (5 h)
k = h⁻¹
5.Hard
0.1110t (h)C (mg/L)Cpeak​ = 7τ = ?Ctrough​ = 0.5

Practice exercise (made-up values, not clinical guidance). A patient's gentamicin half-life is 2.5 h. The target is a peak of 7 mg/L and a trough of 0.5 mg/L. Assuming rapid IV doses and first-order elimination, what dosing interval τ lets the level fall from the peak to the trough? Round to one decimal place.

t½ = 2.5 hCpeak = 7 mg/LCtrough = 0.5 mg/L
τ = h
6.Hard
t (h)C (mg/L)Css​t = ?90%

Practice exercise (made-up values, not clinical guidance). A vancomycin infusion is started without a loading dose. The half-life in this patient is 6 h. How long t does it take to reach 90% of the steady-state level?

t½ = 6 h90% Css
t = h

Answer key

  1. 1. tss = 10 h
  2. 2. LD = 177 mg
  3. 3. LD = 750 mg
  4. 4. k = 0.3411 h⁻¹
  5. 5. τ = 9.5 h
  6. 6. t = 19.93 h

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