Hi NMUSERS,

I have a question regarding the use of OMEGA BLOCK statements in simulations 
when one (or more) elements of the matrix are 0.

When I use the following lines to describe the OMEGA structure and run the 
simulation everything works well:

$OMEGA
0 FIX   ; IIV_CL2
0.1     ; IIV_V2
0.1     ; IIV_F1
0.01     ; IIV_KA
$OMEGA BLOCK(1) 0.01  ; IOV_KA
$OMEGA BLOCK(1) SAME
$OMEGA BLOCK(1) SAME
$OMEGA BLOCK(1) SAME

However, rewriting the above as a full matrix gives me an error message:

$OMEGA  BLOCK(8)
 0 FIX
 0 0.1
 0 0 0.1
 0 0 0 0.01
 0 0 0 0 0.01
 0 0 0 0 0 0.01
 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.01
 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.01

NM-TRAN MESSAGES

 AN ERROR WAS FOUND IN THE CONTROL STATEMENTS.

 AN ERROR WAS FOUND ON LINE  75 AT THE APPROXIMATE POSITION NOTED:
  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.01

 224  A VARIANCE IS ZERO, BUT THE BLOCK IS NOT FIXED TO ZERO.


I tried numerous different ways of placing the term FIX in the block, or not 
mentioning it at all - nothing worked, except replacing the 0 diagonal element 
by a very small number. I know that there are certain constrains of using 0 
values in an OMEGA BLOCK (band symmetric form), but I always thought this was 
only relevant for estimation.
Has anyone come across a similar issue when simulating?

Best regards, Andreas.



Andreas Lindauer, Ph.D.
Associate Principal Scientist, Clinical PKPD
Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, and Drug Metabolism
Merck & Co. / MSD


Notice:  This e-mail message, together with any attachments, contains
information of Merck & Co., Inc. (One Merck Drive, Whitehouse Station,
New Jersey, USA 08889), and/or its affiliates Direct contact information
for affiliates is available at 
http://www.merck.com/contact/contacts.html) that may be confidential,
proprietary copyrighted and/or legally privileged. It is intended solely
for the use of the individual or entity named on this message. If you are
not the intended recipient, and have received this message in error,
please notify us immediately by reply e-mail and then delete it from 
your system.

Reply via email to