Abstract
The adequacy of present-day measurement techniques for the compartmental modelling of metabolic systems is investigated using numerical examples and analysis of experimentally-obtained plasma clearance curves. It is concluded that the model parameters obtained are often of questionable accuracy. The situation can be improved by careful monitoring of experimental conditions and judicious spacing of data points on the response curve, but the work shows a clear need for a continuous (or semicontinuous) method of monitoring plasma concentration. To resolve ambiguities between models equally plausible on physiological grounds, it is necessary to monitor the dynamics of internal variables, for example, of the concentration in the liver (which is nowadays possible noninvasively).
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Brown, R.F., Carson, E.R., Finkelstein, L. et al. Adequacy of measurements in compartmental modelling of metabolic systems. Med. Biol. Eng. Comput. 17, 216–222 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02440932
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02440932