Once-daily dosing intravenous tobramycin is commonly used to treat cystic fibrosis pulmonary exacerbations. Clinicians often utilize historical therapeutic drug monitoring data to individualize the dose among patients who have been treated with tobramycin previously. This case series involves three patients with cystic fibrosis who had supra-therapeutic tobramycin levels despite use of a once-d...

OBJECTIVES Trimethoprim (TMP)/sulfamethoxazole (SMX) has consistently demonstrated great interindividual variability. Therapeutic drug monitoring may be used to optimize dosing. Optimal peak SMX concentration has been proposed as 100 to 150 μg/mL. The objective of our work was to determine the success rate of a TMP/SMX dosing guideline in achieving a targeted serum peak SMX concentration range....

Mycophenolic acid (MPA) has become the cornerstone in the treatment of lupus nephritis. However, response rates are still far from ideal in clinical trials. Uncertainty exists regarding the correct dosing of MPA, and the recommended doses vary between recently published guidelines. Side effects are an additional problem resulting in frequent dose reduction and possible suboptimal exposure.In th...

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is a multidisciplinary activity. Because laboratory reports are part of the patient's chart, some clinical information is required. In order to guarantee quality and safety, an increasing number of TDM departments have implemented a quality management system. The aim of the present article is to review the three phases of TDM: the pre-analytical, analytical and...

Lack of response to monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) has been associated with inadequate mAb serum concentrations. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of mAbs has the potential to guide to more effective dosing in individual patients. This review discusses the mechanisms responsible for interpatient variability of mAb pharmacokinetics, summarizes exposure-response data of mAbs used in inflammatory an...

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is the measurement of serum or plasma drug concentration to allow the individualization of dosing. We describe the case of a patient who was prescribed inappropriately large doses of vancomycin due to inaccurate TDM. Specifically, our laboratory reported progressively lower vancomycin concentrations despite dose increases. Eventually, when duplicate samples wer...

Developing better antiretroviral drugs, individualizing therapy through patient genetic profiling, and maintaining effective drug concentrations with therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) represent 3 current areas of interest in the field of HIV pharmacology. This article first examines antiretroviral drug binding to plasma proteins, a factor that affects the amount of free drug available to enter ...

Slow responders to tuberculosis (TB) treatment in Virginia have prolonged treatment duration and consume more programmatic resources. Diabetes is an independent risk factor for slow response and low serum anti-TB drug concentrations. Thus, a statewide initiative of early therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) for isoniazid and rifampin at 2 weeks after TB treatment was piloted for all diabetics with...

OBJECTIVES To assay theophylline blood levels in a sample of Sri Lankan chronic asthmatics taking oral theophylline, and to evaluate a simple and cost effective ultraviolet spectrophotometric assay for theophylline levels in blood. SETTING Chronic asthmatics taking oral theophylline attending medical clinics at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL) were recruited for the study. Blood samp...

Drug-induced cholestasis is the main type of liver disorder accompanied by high morbidity and mortality. Evidence for the role of hepatobiliary pumps in the cholestasis patho-mechanism is constantly increasing. Recognition of the interactions of chemical agents with these transporters at the initial phases of drug discovery can help develop new drug candidates with low cholestasis potential. Th...