Online individualized dose estimation

The development of automated individualized drug dosage regimens, namely in general anaesthesia environment, has been a subject of interest in the last decades. The use of continuous intravenous drug administration aims at, accurately, maintaining the system at a desired target effect concentration level. Different methods have been proposed for the design of individualized dosage regimens. In this study individual drug dose design is achieved through the characterization of transient initial response induced by a bolus administration of drug. This approach is based on the statistical analysis of the data using Walsh-Fourier spectral analysis which provides information about patient dynamics, allowing the on-line drug dose design using multiple linear least squares and quantile regression techniques. The proposed methodology is illustrated in the case where the effect measured on the patient corresponds to the neuromuscular blockade (NMB) level and the drug to the muscle relaxant atracurium.