System Realizations by Mammillary Models with an Application to Propofol Pharmacokinetics

TL;DR

This paper establishes conditions for representing linear systems with mammillary models and demonstrates their application in physiologically interpretable pharmacokinetic modeling of propofol.

Contribution

It provides necessary and sufficient conditions for system realization using mammillary models, linking mathematical models to physiological processes.

Findings

Conditions for mammillary model realizations derived

Application to propofol pharmacokinetics demonstrated

Supports physiologically interpretable system representations

Abstract

This work addresses the problem of linear system realizations by mammillary models, offering necessary and sufficient conditions under which a given transfer function can be represented in this form. While standard identifi cation techniques may yield transfer functions without an explicit connection to underlying physiological processes, com partmental models, particularly mammillary ones, reflect the physiological dynamics of distribution and elimination. This feature is especially relevant in clinical pharmacology, where model parameters must correspond to meaningful biological processes to support interpretability, personalization, and safe drug delivery, such as in total intravenous anesthesia. To conclude, an application to a propofol infusion model illustrates how mammillary realizations can support physiologically inter pretable system representations.