Maintenance dose curve

Patients with a skin-fold thickness of less than 20 mm at the injection site have a mean reduction in the maintenance dose of 36% when treatment is changed from two injections a week to daily injections (119). In patients with a thin layer of subcutaneous fat, the diffusion distance of epoetin to bloodstream is shorter than in patients with a thicker layer of subcutaneous fat. Therefore, the diffusion time in lean patients is shorter and the increase in plasma epoetin concentration is more pronounced but of shorter duration after each injection. More frequent injections of reduced amounts of epoetin creates an absorption curve whose area is more congruent with the area of the therapeutic plasma concentration. 

Maintenance dose most commonly, prolonging the dosing interval but maintaining the same dose will result in the achievement of similar peak and trough concentrations as well as area under the curve and thus may be preferred... 

---