MCQs
1. Which of the following is a characteristic of nonlinear pharmacokinetics?
A) Constant clearance
B) First-order elimination
C) Dose-independent kinetics
D) Saturable metabolism
2. The most common cause of nonlinear pharmacokinetics is:
A) Saturation of protein binding
B) Saturable enzyme metabolism
C) Active tubular secretion
D) Passive diffusion
3. In nonlinear pharmacokinetics, as dose increases, the AUC:
A) Decreases linearly
B) Increases less than proportionally
C) Increases more than proportionally
D) Remains unchanged
4. Michaelis-Menten equation is applied to:
A) First-order elimination
B) Passive diffusion
C) Zero-order kinetics
D) Saturable enzymatic metabolism
5. What does "Km" represent in Michaelis-Menten kinetics?
A) Maximum rate of elimination
B) Rate constant of absorption
C) Drug concentration at half Vmax
D) Drug concentration at steady state
6. Which drug shows nonlinear pharmacokinetics due to saturable hepatic metabolism?
A) Phenytoin
B) Gentamicin
C) Penicillin
D) Atenolol
7. The Vmax in the Michaelis-Menten equation stands for:
A) Velocity of absorption
B) Maximum elimination capacity
C) Minimum rate of metabolism
D) Minimum drug concentration
8. Nonlinear pharmacokinetics typically results in:
A) Predictable plasma drug concentrations
B) Proportional drug accumulation
C) Difficult dose adjustment
D) Constant half-life
9. If a drug exhibits zero-order kinetics at high doses, it means:
A) Rate of elimination is proportional to dose
B) Drug is eliminated only by kidneys
C) Rate of elimination is constant regardless of concentration
D) AUC remains constant
10. Which of the following drugs exhibits dose-dependent pharmacokinetics?
A) Ciprofloxacin
B) Theophylline
C) Metformin
D) Ranitidine
11. In nonlinear kinetics, half-life:
A) Remains constant
B) Increases with dose
C) Decreases with dose
D) Always unpredictable
12. What is the main assumption behind Michaelis-Menten model?
A) Drug metabolism is independent of dose
B) Metabolic pathway follows zero-order kinetics
C) Enzyme-mediated metabolism becomes saturated
D) First-order kinetics prevails at all doses
13. At drug concentrations much lower than Km, the kinetics become:
A) Zero-order
B) Linear
C) Mixed-order
D) Saturable
14. At high drug concentrations (>> Km), the elimination follows:
A) First-order kinetics
B) Linear clearance
C) Zero-order kinetics
D) Mixed-order kinetics
15. In the equation: Rate = (Vmax × C) / (Km + C), if C is very small compared to Km, the equation simplifies
to:
A) Rate = Vmax
B) Rate = Vmax / Km
C) Rate = (Vmax × C) / Km
D) Rate = C / Km
16. Which of the following does NOT cause non-linearity?
A) Saturation of metabolic enzymes
B) Saturable plasma protein binding
C) Passive glomerular filtration
D) Saturable transport in intestine
17. Dose-dependent pharmacokinetics means:
A) Bioavailability changes with time
B) Drug elimination rate is unaffected
C) PK parameters vary with dose
D) Renal clearance remains constant
18. Which parameter remains constant in linear kinetics but not in nonlinear kinetics?
A) AUC
B) Volume of distribution
C) Clearance
D) Plasma protein binding
19. Which drug shows nonlinear PK due to capacity-limited renal reabsorption?
A) Probenecid
B) Salicylates
C) Lidocaine
D) Phenobarbital
20. In nonlinear pharmacokinetics, what happens to drug accumulation at steady state when dose is doubled?
A) Remains the same
B) Less than doubled
C) More than doubled
D) Can't be predicted
21. A plot of plasma concentration vs time for nonlinear PK shows:
A) Straight line
B) Sigmoid curve
C) Concave downward curve
D) Exponential decline
22. Which enzyme system is often involved in nonlinear metabolism?
A) MAO
B) CYP450
C) Xanthine oxidase
D) Cholinesterase
23. In nonlinear PK, bioavailability may:
A) Always decrease
B) Always increase
C) Be unaffected
D) Vary with dose
24. Which analytical method helps estimate Vmax and Km?
A) Lineweaver-Burk plot
B) Zero-order plot
C) Higuchi model
D) Noyes-Whitney plot
25. One clinical implication of nonlinear pharmacokinetics is:
A) Dose can be doubled safely
B) Therapeutic drug monitoring is crucial
C) It eliminates drug interactions
D) Half-life is always fixed
Answer Key
Q.No Ans Q.No Ans Q.No Ans Q.No Ans Q.No Ans
1 D 6 A 11 B 16 C 21 B
2 B 7 B 12 C 17 C 22 B
3 C 8 C 13 B 18 C 23 D
4 D 9 C 14 C 19 B 24 A
5 C 10 B 15 C 20 C 25 C
