CYP enzyme activity is differentially affected by the presence of liver disease. We propose that the data can be explained by the "sequential progressive model of hepatic dysfunction," whereby liver disease severity has a differential effect on the metabolic activity of specific CYP enzymes.

These observations suggest that the presence of selective mechanisms of regulation for individual CYP enzymes can be influenced by age and sex. However, we suggest that sex has a limited ability to explain intersubject variation of activity for these phenotypic measures of CYP enzyme activity.

Midazolam pharmacokinetic parameters that are specific to liver and intestinal metabolism were not different between the traditional and semisimultaneous methods. The semisimultaneous method also yielded expected marked changes in the parameters as a result of ketoconazole inhibition. Thus the semisimultaneous midazolam method appears to be a suitable approach to determine hepatic and intestinal CYP3A activity at baseline and with enzyme inhibition.