Jan 13
Exponential Decay and Drug Interactions
Posted in Authentic Applied Problems Tagged algebra, Authentic Applied Problem, exponential, functions, half-life, logarithms, precalculus
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Working together with my best friend since the 5th grade who is now a nurse practitioner, I developed this problem in which students have to use exponential decay (half life) to protect their patient from dangerous drug interactions.
Your patient has a fungal infection and is taking ketoconazole 400mg daily for 10 days. During this time they have been advised to stop taking their atorvastatin because of the potential for severe interaction. They may begin taking the atorvastatin again when the concentration of ketoconazole is at 12.5% of the original amount. The half life of ketoconazole is 8 hours.
How many hours after the last dose of ketoconazole can you patient resume taking the atorvastatin?
2:04 pm - 8-21-2017
Math is not my strong suit, but it is a source of great fun for my teen! I’ll show this blog to her later when she’s up – I think she’ll love sitting down to figure out some of the problems. But then again, she’s the kind of math person who took a second math class last year just for fun.