noncompartmentmalleja

Noncompartmental analysis (NCA) is a method used in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics to describe drug disposition without assuming a specific underlying compartmental model. Instead of fitting data to predefined models with rate constants and volumes of distribution, NCA directly calculates key pharmacokinetic parameters from observed drug concentration-time data. This approach is often considered model-independent, although it does rely on some assumptions, such as sufficient sampling and that the observed data adequately represents the drug's behavior in the body.

Key parameters derived from NCA include the maximum observed concentration (Cmax), the time to reach Cmax (Tmax), the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC), and the terminal elimination half-life (t1/2). AUC is typically calculated using the trapezoidal rule. These parameters provide a quantitative description of drug exposure and elimination. NCA is particularly useful in early drug development, bioequivalence studies, and situations where a complex or unknown disposition model might be present. Its simplicity and directness make it a valuable tool for characterizing drug behavior.