ABSTRACT
In the previous discussions, the compartmental approach was used to describe the pharmacokinetic behavior of the drug in the body. The compartmental approach for data analysis requires model specication and setting the assumptions to identify the space within which the model can be applied. This approach of data analysis is usually performed utilizing special computer software, which requires special skills and knowledge of pharmacokinetics and statistics to ensure proper model specication and suitability for the obtained results. Also, complex compartmental pharmacokinetic models in most cases describe the drug prole in the body better than the simpler models. However, complex pharmacokinetic models usually have more parameters and the accuracy of parameter estimation is usually compromised in the presence of limited data. So it is important to statistically test if going to complex pharmacokinetic models signicantly improves the description of the drug concentration-time prole in the body without compromising the accuracy of the model parameter estimates. When all these issues are considered, the compartmental approach can be a very valuable tool for the analysis of pharmacokinetic data.
