[Clearance concept applied to pharmacokinetics: 1. Application for the study of tolamolol (beta-blocking agent) in healthy volunteers (author's transl)].

Pharmacokinetics is often performed using models derived from the properties of exponential equations in order to analyse the behaviour of drugs in normal and pathological situations. A new approach based on the clearance concept allows an interpretation of the experimental data with models incorporating some physiological parameters, such as hepatic blood flow. The present study shows how the clearance concept may be used for the treatment of the results obtained in healthy volunteers. In particular, it allows an estimation of the importance of hepatic first-pass metabolism and validates the model used for the analyses of the kinetics of tolamolol.