Angie González

Applying Rational Functions

Rational functions on medicine

Abstract: Mathematics is the only science capable of discovering science worldwide and
being the base of lots of fields such as, medicine, physics and chemistry. This happens not
only on careers but also in our daily lives. Math is everywhere. Mathematics is basically the
base of all human beings. We can see that our cells multiply every time they divide, this
sounds very mathematic. In this text, we are interested on seeing the applications of Math
in the health area, we are mainly talking about how a rational function can be used to
determine the specific concentration of a certain medicine for treating an illness or any
medicine the human body needs.

Introduction:

Been a doctor involve some qualities on specific, they need to provide medical care and
guidance for humans on their stages of wroth evaluating their physical, developmental,
academic and emotional. They also need to know how to diagnose illnesses and the
possible treatments for it. They need to examining patients in a short time and under a lot of
pressure. Medicine has a lot of different areas, since general doctor to doctors specializing
in a specific area such as pediatrics, orthopedics, gynecologist, cardiology among other
specializations on every part of the body.

Doctors must complete four years of medicine and three more specializing on the area they
want to. A doctor must have a medical degree and obtain a certify that they have made their
residency, with all of this they would be able obtain a license to become a doctor. Also,
doctors need to provide skills such as: strong medical skills, dexterity to perform
procedures, problem-solving ability, been patient and knowing how to handle people. In
particular a doctor who specialize its studies on pediatric knowledge makes a salary of
approximately “$175,310 in 2019 and the best-paid made over $208.000 a year, while the
lowest-paid made $127,610 a year.” (Money.usnews,2019).

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How I said before, doctors need to determine the specific amount of medicine they are
going to provide to their patient. On this writing we are talking on insulins on patients with
diabetes. It is known that every patient needs a different concentration of insulin also, they
need different amount of time depending of the dose the doctor gave to a specific patient.
“For many years, the treatment regimens for patients have been limited to 2 concentrations
(100 units/mL and 500 units/mL), which pose challenges to both patients and providers”
(Segal,2014;1). For changing this type of concentrations, they need to use rational function
and determine at what time the patient would need that specific amount of concentration.

Calculations:

Function:

5t
C(T) ¿ 2
t +6

Where: C= concentration of the insulin on blood

T= Time un hours

1. Interceptx:

C=0

5t
0= 2
t +6

5 t=0

t=0

Intercepty:

t=0

5 ( 0)
C=
02 +6

C=0

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 2. Asymptotes

Vertical: t 2+ 6=0

t 2=−6

There is not a vertical asymptote

Horizontal: t →∞ t →−∞

C ( t )=0 C ( t )=0

Y= 0

3. Holes: There are no holes

4. Maximum and minimum values:

Minimum: 0

Maximum: 1.021

5. Intervals:
C (t )≥ 0 for t ≥ 0
6. Domain: { x : x ≥ 0 , x ∈ R }
7. Range: { y :0 ≤ y ≤ 1.021 , y ∈ R }

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 Concentration of insulin in blood

Time

Concentration of insulin in blood

Time

The maximum value represents when de insulin has been injected to the patient and the
minimum value represent when de insulin starts to lose its effect.

Conclusions:

On this analysis we understood how rational functions could be apply on medicine. Specific
on something important how it is giving concentration of any type of medicine for relieve a
specific disease or illness. Personally, I did not know we could apply rational functions on
such an important field as medicine and the specific area of giving medicine to patients.
Also what I could determine was as the time passes the quantity of insulin in blood would
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start to reduce, this is important to know because doctors would determine at what time
every medicine needs to be consume. All medicines need to decrease its blood
concentration and go to their minimum value because if it stays every time on the
maximum value this could be dangerous for the patient.

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604590/

http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0185-33252013000600003

http://netlizama.usach.cl/Apuntes%20Medicina%20(Veronica).pdf

https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=choosing-your-childs-healthcare-
provider-90-P02647