Body and drug basics
Clearance
Last updated
Clearance is the body getting rid of a substance, either by chemically taking it apart, mainly in the liver, or by passing it out, mainly through the kidneys. It is usually expressed as the volume of blood cleaned of the substance per unit of time, which is why it remains a useful number even as the amount present falls. Peptides are typically cut up by enzymes, which are proteins whose job is to take other molecules apart, rather than being passed out whole.
Why it matters here
Clearance and half-life describe the same process from two angles, and clearance is the one that shifts when kidney or liver function is not typical. It is also part of why identical exposure does not produce identical levels in two different people.
What it is not
Clearance is not the effect ending, and it is not detoxification in the wellness sense. It is a rate of removal. A substance that has been fully cleared may have left changes behind that persist, including reduced numbers of receptors.
Also called
- clearance
- cleared
- elimination
- excretion
- renal clearance
- hepatic clearance
- cl
Elimination is the general word for removal by any means; excretion means specifically leaving the body, usually in urine.
Compounds carrying this term
None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.