This document discusses renal clearance, which is the volume of plasma cleared of drug per unit of time by the kidneys. Renal clearance is determined graphically by plotting the rate of drug excretion in urine against the plasma drug concentration to calculate the slope, which equals clearance. Factors that can affect renal clearance include physicochemical drug properties, plasma concentration, distribution/binding characteristics, urine pH, blood flow to the kidneys, and disease states. The concept of clearance is now applied to describe drug elimination by organs like the liver, lungs and bile.