Background

In addition to impaired renal function, hemodialysis pa-tients may also possess altered pharmacokinetics (PKs) caused by hemodialysis itself. Hemodialysis is an import-ant drug elimination rout, which is influenced by the characteristics of the drug, dialysis membrane and dose of dialysis [1]. In addition, hemodialysis may influence the metabolic clearance of a drug by affecting drug-metabolizing enzymes or transporters [2]. However, des-pite the difficulty of predicting PKs, which results from various interfering factors, previous PK studies have often excluded the hemodialysis patient population [3,4]. One reason for frequent exclusion is the uncertainty of selecting proper dosing for a PK study. In fact, improper dosing during PK studies can cause several problems. For example, administration of a potentially unsafe high dose during a PK study may lead to drug accumulatio