Respiratory function assessment in safety pharmacology.

The known effects of drugs from a variety of pharmacological/therapeutic classes on the respiratory system, the life-threatening consequences of respiratory dysfunction, and world-wide regulatory safety guidelines all support the need for conducting respiratory evaluations in safety pharmacology. This unit provides an overview of the functional disorders of the respiratory system and presents the techniques and strategies considered to be most appropriate for detecting and characterizing drug-induced respiratory disorders in safety pharmacology studies.