how do the principles of diffusion and equilibrium apply to medical procedures such as intravenous feeding

Question

aaronq · Answer

when you administer any fluid intravenously you have to calculate the dose taking into consideration the diffusion of the drug (amongst many other things eg. protein binding, reservoirs, biotransformations) into tissue because the apparent volume will change due to how fast the drug molecules can penetrate through cellular membranes. The drug then takes time to equilibrate before an accurate reading for the concentration and the dose can be calculated.