Loading Dose
Định nghĩa
An initial higher dose of medication given to rapidly achieve therapeutic blood levels before transitioning to a lower maintenance dose. Loading doses are used for drugs with long half-lives that would otherwise take days to reach steady state.
Ví dụ
Digoxin has a half-life of 36-48 hours; without a loading dose, it would take 7-10 days to reach steady state. A loading dose achieves therapeutic levels within hours.
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