An allometric model for predicting blood ethanol elimination in mammals.

The relationship of ethanol elimination kinetics in mammals was estimated using the allometric principle. The hypothesis of relationships between parameters obtained from the compartment model with Michaelis-Menten elimination kinetics and body weight can lead to common equations of blood ethanol elimination in mammals. The maximum elimination velocity (g/hr) and the apparent volume of distribution (L) were significantly proportional to the 0.71 and 0.93 powers of body weight (r = 0.994, P < 0.01 and r = 0.998, P < 0.001), respectively. There was no significant relationship between the Michaelis constant and body weight. In the differential equations of the two-compartment model, the kinetics parameters were substituted for the obtained power functions. Good fitting of these equations for the real data showed that ethanol elimination kinetics in mammals can be predicted quantitatively.