NONMEM and symbols

From: Leon J Aarons - mbpsslja@man.ac.uk Subject: [NMusers] NONMEM and symbols Date: 1/7/2004 1:38 PM This is a suggestion/request from a journal editor. For the two journals that I am involved with - the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and the Journal of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics - I frequently get papers to edit which are based on a NONMEM population analysis. The problem that I am concerned with can be illustrated with the two compartment open model which for NMTRAN is coded by ADVAN4, TRANS4. NONMEM uses V2 and V3 to denote the volume terms as well as other parameters such as F2 etc. The issue I have is that many authors are using these symbols, not only in tables, but in the body of the manuscript. Not only is the use of V2 and V3 numerically illogical for a two compartment model - although I perfectly understand and accept why NONMEM uses this convention (it is actually a four compartment model) - these are above all pharmacokinetic parameters and should be understood outside the context of a NONMEM analysis. I would recommend the article by Rowland and Tucker, J.Pharmacokin.Biopharm.(as was) 8: 497-507 (1980) 'Symbols in Pharmacokinetics' and in particular the quote from Humpty Dumpty aka Lewis Carroll "When I use a symbol, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less" Leon __________________________________________________ Leon Aarons School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences University of Manchester Manchester, M13 9PL, U.K. tel +44-161-275-2357 fax +44-161-275-2396 email leon.aarons@man.ac.uk _______________________________________________________