Pharmacokinetics Scroll Story

Wonderful Wednesdays • 2026-06-10 challenge

Why this story

A single oral dose, 50 subjects, plasma concentration followed for 24 hours. Scroll through four questions, one full screen at a time:

  1. What is the population-level PK pattern over time?
  2. How much between-subject variability is present at each time point?
  3. How consistent are peak timing (Tmax) and peak concentration (Cmax) across subjects?
  4. Is the overall profile shape consistent after normalizing by subject peak?

Dataset scope: 50 subjects, 8 post-dose time points (0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24 h) up to 24 hours.

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At a glance

Population-level PK metrics (per-subject values summarized as median [IQR]):

Metric Value
Subjects × time points 50 × 8 (single oral dose, 0–24 h)
Median Cmax 79.5 ng/mL [75.2–82.3]
Median Tmax 2.0 h (86% of subjects peak at 2 h)
Median AUC(0.5–24 h) 913 ng·h/mL [823–1084]
Apparent terminal t½ (from ≥8 h) 6.9 h (n = 50)

AUC is trapezoidal over the observed sampling window (first sample at 0.5 h, so this is not extrapolated to time 0 or infinity). Half-life is an apparent terminal estimate from the log-linear tail and is provided as an orientation value only.

Individual trajectories

Hover any line to highlight that subject and read their ID and values — all other lines fade out. The visual noise is the message: 50 subjects, all different.

Population fan — linear axis

The same variability distilled into a clean quantile fan. The fan width at each time is the key signal. On the linear axis the rise-to-peak reads directly.

Population fan — log axis

The same fan on a log y-axis. Concentrations span ~31× across the window, so the post-peak decline straightens into the near-linear elimination phase.

Variability by time point

Spread and skew at each sampling time. The box shows the IQR; every jittered point is one subject.

Peak behavior — Cmax & Tmax

Peak timing is remarkably consistent: 86% of subjects peak at 2 h, with the remainder at 4 h. Because Tmax takes only a couple of discrete values here, a Cmax-vs-Tmax scatter with a trend line would be misleading — so we show the Cmax distribution grouped by Tmax, every subject a jittered point. Do the late-peaking subjects reach different concentrations?

Normalized profile shape

Normalizing each profile by its subject-level peak (C/Cmax) highlights shape differences independent of magnitude. Hover over any data point to see the subject.

Takeaways

  1. The median PK curve rises to a peak at 2.0 h (~79.1 ng/mL) and declines over 24 hours, with an apparent terminal half-life of ~6.9 h.
  2. Between-subject variability is visible at all time points, widest around the peak window; concentrations span ~31× across the study.
  3. Peak timing is highly consistent (86% peak at 2 h), and Cmax is relatively tight (median 79.5 ng/mL [75.2–82.3]).
  4. After normalization, profile shapes are broadly similar but still show meaningful heterogeneity, especially in the elimination phase.