The current review addresses the following 3 frequently encountered challenges in the design and analysis of population pharmacokinetic
studies in pediatrics: (1) body size adjustments during the development of pharmacostatistical models, (2) design and validation
of limited sampling strategies, and (3) the integration of historical priors in data analysis and trial simulation. Size adjustments
with empiric approaches based on body weight or body surface area have frequently proven as a pragmatic tool to overcome large
size differences in a pediatric study population. Allometric size adjustments, however, provide a more mechanistic, physiologically
based approach that, if used a priori, allows delineation of the effect of size from that of other covariates that show a
high degree of collinearity. The frequent lack of dense data sets in pediatric clinical pharmacology because of ethical and
logistic constraints in study design can be overcome with the application of D-optimality-based limited sampling schemes in
combination with Bayesian and nonlinear mixed-effects modeling approaches. Empirically based dose selection and clinical trial
designs for pediatric clinical pharmacology studies can be improved by applying clinical trial simulation techniques, especially
if they integrate adult and pediatric in vitro and/or in vivo data as historic priors. Although integration of these concepts
and techniques in population pharmacokinetic analyses is not only limited to pediatric research, their application allows
researchers to overcome some major hurdles frequently encountered in pharmacokinetic studies in pediatrics and, thus, provides
the basis for additional clinical pharmacology research in this previously insufficiently studied fraction of the general
population.
Keywords population pharmacokinetics - pediatrics - body size - sparse sampling - clinical trial simulation
Published: October 5, 2005