Koch H P
Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Austria.
Pharmazie. 1993 Sep;48(9):643-59.
An old problem is sometimes better understood when it is viewed from a new perspective than by investigating it repeatedly with classical methods. Such a new perspective is provided by the concept of fractals. Briefly, this term defines a spread class of geometric shapes, whose subunits replicate the structure of the larger unit in accordance with the formalization of the idea of self-similarity. This concept was introduced by Mandel-brot in respond to the need for a more sophisticated explanation of numerous phenomena commonly encountered in nature. In this review we will provide a short introduction into the concept of fractals and a concise overview of those studies where fractal geometry has been employed so far in pharmaceutical research. We believe that a review of the most recent findings in the application of fractal geometry to problems encountered in the pharmaceutical sciences might be helpful also to those people who are involved in the search for novel drug substances, as well as in the investigation of their performance in vitro and in vivo. A few suggestions will be made where this concept probably could be helpful in the future and instructions will be given on how the fractal dimension of rugged objects can be estimated practically.
有时，从新的视角看待一个老问题，比用传统方法反复研究能更好地理解它。分形的概念就提供了这样一种新视角。简而言之，这个术语定义了一类广泛的几何形状，其亚单位根据自相似性的形式化，复制更大单位的结构。这个概念是由曼德勃罗提出的，以回应需要对自然界中常见的众多现象进行更精确解释的需求。在本综述中，我们将简要介绍分形的概念，并简要概述到目前为止在药物研究中应用分形几何的那些研究。我们认为，回顾分形几何在药物科学中遇到的问题应用方面的最新发现，可能对那些参与寻找新型药物物质以及研究其体外和体内性能的人也有帮助。将提出一些关于这个概念在未来可能有用的建议，并给出关于如何实际估计粗糙物体的分形维数的说明。
