Likely explanation for longer duration of pharmacological (antianginal) effects of propranolol in relation to its short half-life

Abstract

Plasma propranolol concentration-effect-time data obtained from the literature were analyzed by applying a theory for correlating the observed kinetic data with the pharmacological (antianginal) effects using the elimination rate constant (Kel) and the slope of log concentration-effect relationship (m). The plasma propranolol concentrations yield the first-order rate elimination while the drug effects decline linerarly with time at the zero-order rate as proposed by the theory. The rate of decline of drug effects derived from the application of the theory ("theoretical" Rd) was found to be in reasonable agreement with that actually observed in the effect-time interrelations ("observed" Rd), which will imply that the longer duration of the antianginal effects of propranolol is explainable with its short half-life.