Kreara

Area Under Curve (AUC)

In the field of pharmacokinetics, the area under the curve (AUC) is the area under the curve in a plot of concentration of drug in plasma against time.

In real-world terms the AUC (from zero to infinity) represents the total amount of drug absorbed by the body, irrespective of the rate of absorption. This is useful when trying to determine whether two formulations of the same dose (for example a capsule and a tablet) release the same dose of drug to the body.


AUC becomes useful for knowing the average concentration over a time interval, AUC/t. Also, AUC is referenced when talking about elimination.
The amount eliminated by the body = clearance (volume/time) * AUC (mass*time/volume).

Another application that we recently found is when we try to establish the equivalence of two asthma formulations and their superiority over placebo. Here are some links if you

a. want to learn how we can use integration to find the AUC
b. A small SAS macro to calculate AUC using trapezoidal rule
c. Use proc expand to find out the AUC