What is the endpoint in pharmacokinetics?
An endpoint or clinical endpoint, in a research trial, refers to a disease, symptom, or sign that constitutes one of the target outcomes of the pharmacokinetic trial. The results of a clinical trial generally indicate the number of people enrolled who reached the pre-determined clinical endpoint during the study interval, compared with the overall number of people who were enrolled. A patient who reaches the endpoint is generally excluded from further experimental intervention (the origin of the term endpoint). For example, a clinical trial investigating the ability of a medication to prevent heart attack might use chest pain as a clinical endpoint. Any patient enrolled in the trial who develops chest pain over the course of the trial, then, would be counted as having reached that clinical endpoint. The results would ultimately reflect the fraction of patients who reached the endpoint of having developed chest pain, compared with the overall number of people enrolled. When an experimen
