Dose-response curve for anaesthetics based on the Monod-Wyman-Changeux model.

We have analysed the dose-response curve for halothane and isoflurane according to the Monod-Wyman-Changeux (MWC) model. This model describes the nature of the physiological data reported by Wakamori, Ikemoto and Akaike for inhibitory Cl currents induced by GABA or glycine in dissociated rat brain neurones and by Herrington and colleagues for Ca2+ currents in clonal pituitary cells. With some assumptions on the difference in response to anaesthetics between patients, the model is applicable in vivo, and it also describes well the human dose-response curve for isoflurane reported by Mather, Raftery and Prys-Roberts. However, the steeply sigmoidal dose-response curve in humans for halothane presented by deJong and Eger is difficult to understand with the same model, because it gives rise to unrealistic MWC variables.