The kidney--the body's playground for drugs: an overview of renal drug handling with selected clinical correlates.

A greater understanding of transport mechanisms contributing to renal drug handling may be useful in predicting drug clearance and drug interactions. Renal clearance is a dynamic process expressed as the sum of the rates of glomerular filtration and tubular secretion minus the rate of tubular reabsorption. Because the transport of drugs is often against a concentration gradient, renal secretion is mostly an active process involving a variety of …