The nurse is aware that for a drug to work properly on reactive tissues, a sufficient amount of the drug is needed to cause the therapeutic effect. The term used for this amount is:
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: A critical concentration of a drug must be present before a reaction occurs within our cells. A dynamic equilibrium is obtained from absorption of a drug from the site of drug entry, distribution to the active site, metabolism in the liver, and excretion from the body to have a critical concentration. Selective toxicity is the ability of a drug to attach only to those systems found in foreign cells. Active transport is the process that uses energy to actively move a molecule across a cell membrane and is often involved in drug excretion in the kidney.