Similarly, ethnic groups and individuals vary widely in their ability to clear medications from the bloodstream, owing to differences in the activity of the enzymes that metabolize, or degrade, drugs. That is important because low metabolizers clear certain drugs slowly and have more medication in their systems for longer periods of time than high metabolizers.
类似地，不同族群和个人清除血液中药物成分的能力具有很大差别，这是由促进药物新陈代谢或降解的酶的能力差异造成的。这一点非常重要，因为新陈代谢能力较低者与能力较高者相比，其清除某些药物的速度较慢，生理系统中药物残存量较大。因此，对同一药物，前者容易产生剂量过度，而后者可能剂量不足。