From the
Exploring Data website - http://curriculum.qed.qld.gov.au/kla/eda/
© Education Queensland, 1997
Coedine Concentration
in the Body
| Notes on
this Dataset There are numerous options for questions about this dataset ranging from simple descriptive statistics to the t-test. For Maths A and B, back-to-back stemplots (constructed by hand) and boxplots to help compare the two medications would be suitable, while for Maths C, the dataset lends itself to a paired t-test on the given data, or to a one-sample t-test on the differences between the two medications. |
Immediate release medications quickly liberate their drug content into the body, with the maximum concentration reached in a short time followed by a rapid decline in concentration. Sustained release medications, on the other hand, take longer to reach maximum concentration in the body and stay active for longer periods of time.
A study of two such pain relief medications compared immediate release codeine (irc) with sustained release codeine (src). Thirteen healthy patients were randomly assigned to one of the two types of codeine and treated for 2.5 days. After a 7-day wash-out period, the same patients were given the other type of codeine. Thus, each patient received both treatments.
Measurements include the maximum concentration (C) in ng/mL, the time to maximum concentration (T) in hours, the total amount of drug available over the life of the treatment (A) in (ng*mL)/hr and the age of the patient. These data are shown below.
Age |
Circ |
Csrc |
Tirc |
Tsrc |
Airc |
Asrc |
33 |
181.8 |
195.7 |
0.5 |
2.0 |
1091.3 |
1308.5 |
40 |
466.9 |
167.0 |
1.0 |
3.0 |
1064.5 |
1494.2 |
41 |
136.0 |
217.3 |
0.5 |
3.0 |
1281.1 |
1382.2 |
43 |
221.3 |
375.7 |
1.5 |
4.5 |
1921.4 |
1978.3 |
25 |
195.1 |
285.7 |
0.5 |
2.0 |
1649.9 |
2004.6 |
30 |
112.7 |
177.2 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
1423.6 |
* |
24 |
84.2 |
220.3 |
2.0 |
1.5 |
1308.4 |
1211.1 |
44 |
78.5 |
243.5 |
1.0 |
3.0 |
1192.1 |
1002.4 |
42 |
85.9 |
141.6 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
766.2 |
866.6 |
33 |
85.3 |
127.2 |
2.0 |
4.5 |
978.6 |
1345.8 |
38 |
217.2 |
345.2 |
0.5 |
1.5 |
1618.9 |
979.2 |
39 |
49.7 |
112.1 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
582.9 |
576.3 |
43 |
190.0 |
223.4 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
972.1 |
999.1 |