As new drugs are developed, it is essential to appropriately translate the drug dosage from one animal species to another. A misunderstanding appears to exist regarding the appropriate method for allometric dose translations, especially when starting new animal or clinical studies. The need for education regarding appropriate translation is evident from the media response regarding some recent studies where authors have shown that resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, improves the health and life span of mice. Immediately after the online publication of these papers, the scientific community and popular press voiced concerns regarding the relevance of the dose of resveratrol used by the authors. The animal dose should not be extrapolated to a human equivalent dose (HED) by a simple conversion based on body weight, as was reported. For the more appropriate conversion of drug doses from animal studies to human studies, we suggest using the body surface area (BSA) normalization method. BSA correlates well across several mammalian species with several parameters of biology, including oxygen utilization, caloric expenditure, basal metabolism, blood volume, circulating plasma proteins, and renal function. We advocate the use of BSA as a factor when converting a dose for translation from animals to humans, especially for phase I and phase II clinical trials.

https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1096/fj.07-9574LSF

Dose translation from animal to human studies revisited

https://www.ajkd.org/article/S0272-6386(03)50004-X/pdf

Prevalence of chronic kidney disease and decreased kidney function in the adult US population: Third national health and nutrition examination survey

Simplified calculation of body-surface area

Left ventricular mass and body size in normotensive children and adults: assessment of allometric relations and impact of overweight.

Geometric method for measuring body surface area: A height-weight formula validated in infants, children, and adults†

Since the publication of Paper 5 of this series the so-called "Linear Formula" has been used in the study of a large number of individuals. Practically all of the subjects of respiration experiments in the Sage calorimeter have been measured in this way, and in addition Means1of Boston has used it as a factor in determining his normal base line of metabolism and the extent of the pathological variations. Means has found that the range of normal variation from the average is smaller and that the apparent depression of metabolism in obesity is much less marked when the linear formula, instead of Meeh's formula, is used to determine surface area. The accuracy of the linear formula has been shown in Paper 9 of this series. In order to correct the slight error in the factor for the arms, and also in order to clear up a few points

/pdf/clinical-calorimetry-tenth-paper-a-formula-to-estimate-the-4hwwu48t5w.pdf

Clinical calorimetry: tenth paper a formula to estimate the approximate surface area if height and weight be known

Using the method previously described before this society,1 it has been possible, with the aid of Miss Sawyer and Mr. Stone, to measure the surface area of a total of 10 individuals. The “Linear Formula” previously described, when applied to these, gives an average error of 1.5 per cent. The chief limitation of the “Linear Formula” is that it involves the taking of 19 measurements. In the literature of the respiratory metabolism already published the only data given in regard to most of the subjects are the height and weight.On the basis of the actual measurement of the surface of 10 subjects of widely varying shape, formulas have been constructed on the plan of A = W1/a X H1/b X C, in which A is the surface area in square cm., W is the weight in kilograms and H the height in cm. and C a constant. Various formulas were tried, care being taken that 3/a + 1/b should always equal 2 in order that the formula might remain bi-dimensional. The formula A = W1/3 X H1/1 X C gave an average error of $$ 3.3 per cent....

A height-weight formula to estimate the surface area of man:

Meeh's1 formula K WT2/3 is accurate in principle only when applied to individuals of differing weights but of similar body form.The surface area of five adults of widely different weights and forms was measured by the following method. The subject was dressed in a tight fitting suit of union underwear, the hands were covered with cotton gloves, the feet with socks and the head with a tight fitting bag of woven cotton material. The gloves were then covered with melted paraffin and over the rest of the surface strips of paper were pasted in such a manner that a stiff mould of the body was formed. This was then cut in small pieces which would lie flat. Patterns of these pieces were made by printing them on photographic paper of known area and weight. These patterns were then cut out and weighed and the surface areas of the various parts of body calculated.Many linear measurements of the subject were taken and an effort made to find the length and average breadth of each part of the body. After numerous trial...

/pdf/the-measurement-of-the-surface-area-of-adults-b7pbekx7xm.pdf

Delafield Du Bois

Papers

Clinical calorimetry: tenth paper a formula to estimate the approximate surface area if height and weight be known

A height-weight formula to estimate the surface area of man:

The measurement of the surface area of adults