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Effect of heat treatment of potentially infected blood samples on therapeutic drug monitoring of selected drugs.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of heart treatment on the outcome of drug analysis in whole blood and serum for eight drugs routinely assayed for therapeutic monitoring. DESIGN: All blood and serum samples (n = 373) received at the pharmacy laboratory for therapeutic monitoring of carbamazepine, digoxin, gentamicin, kanamycin, phenobarbital, phenytoin, theophylline, and valproic acid were heated at 60 degrees C for 30 minutes. Serum was subsequently assayed by fluorescence polarization immunoassay (TDx). SETTING: The study was conducted at the analytical laboratory of the pharmacy, using standard laboratory procedures. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Analyses of heated samples were compared with analyses of untreated samples using a paired Wilcoxon signed-rank test. RESULTS: Serum concentrations of phenytoin from treated whole blood, and gentamicin in treated serum, were significantly lower than in untreated samples. These differences, however, were small, clinically irrelevant, and lie within assay variation intervals. Heat treatment did not influence the outcome of analyses for carbamazepine, digoxin, kanamycin, phenobarbital, theophylline, and valproic acid. CONCLUSIONS: Heat treatment of whole blood and serum samples of the investigated drugs does not influence the outcome of drug analysis, although drug instability cannot be fully excluded. Heat treatment can protect laboratory technicians from HIV infection without influencing therapeutic monitoring of these drugs.

Blood Physiological Phenomena↗

Therapeutic drug monitoring of psychotropic drugs. TDM "nouveau".

TDM applied in psychiatry dates back several decades. The reason for this is that, after the advent of modern clinical psychopharmacology around the middle of the past century, an insight came to common knowledge about the existence of (1) a large interindividual pharmacokinetic (PK) variability for virtually all psychoactive drugs and (2) a worse clinical efficacy not only in inadequate drug concentrations but also in excessively high concentrations. From this concept, the definition of a therapeutic concentration "window" was evidenced for a substantial number of, primarily, antidepressant drugs. However, with the further extensive development of the clinically available pharmacopoeia of psychoactive drugs from the later 1980s until today, the concept of less toxic compounds than before has commonly been launched in the marketing strategies for these newer drugs. This concept also led to the idea that TDM was no longer necessary for the newer types of psychoactive drugs, a position backed up by difficulties in unraveling concentration-effect relationships generally for these drugs in clinical trials. The present survey summarizes the background history for TDM in psychiatry and makes a critical appraisal of why a "lack" of definition of concentration-effect relationships for newer psychoactive drugs is now common. This survey also provides the reader with a novel concept challenging ambient TDM strategies (referred to as TDM "traditionelle") in psychiatry by forwarding a theoretical model called TDM "nouveau." In this model both inter- and intraindividual (over time) PK variation is suggested to be used for dose optimization by TDM in a naturalistic clinical setting. The previous concept of a simple, common concentration "window" existing for all such drugs is questioned by promotion of the use of available PK data merely as "guiding principles" rather than as "reference values" when interpreting the TDM outcome in individual cases.

Dose-Response Relationship, Drug↗

Desirable standards of performance for therapeutic drug monitoring.

Therapeutic drug monitoring is an important aspect of clinical chemistry for which no objective analytical goals yet exist. Based on fundamental pharmacokinetic theory, and the current consensus strategy for analytical goal-setting for precision based upon biological variation, a theoretical model allows derivation of the goal that: analytical CV less than or equal to 1/4 [(2T/t - 1)/(2T/t + 1)] X 100%, where T is the time interval between doses, and t is the average elimination half-life. Using published data on half-lives, I have derived goals for analysis for (e.g.) digoxin, lithium, some antiepileptic drugs, and theophylline. The goal for accuracy proposed is that methods should have no bias and should generate true values. Goals for precision should therefore be viewed as goals for total analytical error.

Anticonvulsants↗

Drug-induced attack of bronchial asthma in inpatients: a 20-year survey of the Comprehensive Hospital Drug Monitoring Programme on adverse drug reactions, Berne/St. Gallen.

Epidemiological aspects of attacks of bronchial asthma related to drugs are prospectively studied in inpatients of three teaching hospitals in the Comprehensive Hospital Drug Monitoring (CHDM)-programme. Results are based on 34,840 individual patients (among 48,005 consecutive admissions) in the years 1974-1993. Between 1974 and 1993, every patient admitted to any of the three medical clinics in the CHDM programme was monitored for any suspicion of an adverse drug reaction (ADR); every drug exposure period during hospital stay was registered. Nineteen patients (0.05% of the 34,840 individual patients) had at least one attack of bronchial obstruction during hospitalisation, considered as probable or definite ADR. The frequency related to exposure periods in response to penicillins is 0.014%, to non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) 0.0145, to acetyl salicylic acid (ASA) 0.018%, to paracetamol 0.008% and to beta-adrenoceptor blockers 0.26%. Of the 12 patients reacting to a drug with an allergic or idiosyncrasy/intolerance type of bronchial obstruction, 7 had a history of bronchial asthma (extrinsic or intrinsic), and 3 had the diagnosis chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A history of bronchial asthma or COPD is confirmed to be a risk factor for this particular ADR. Of the seven patients with a bronchial obstruction to beta-adrenoceptor blockers, five were diagnosed with COPD, while two had neither COPD nor bronchial asthma. The relative risk for this pharmacological reaction in COPD patients was 96 (95% confidence interval 45-208) compared with non-COPD patients in the group of 3244 exposed to beta-adrenoceptor blockers.

Adrenergic Antagonists↗

Tricyclic antidepressants: the whys and hows of therapeutic drug monitoring.

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) is a cost-effective tool that can improve both the safety and efficacy of TCA pharmacotherapy. By understanding the principles behind TDM, the physician can rationally interpret plasma TCA levels and avoid spurious results. The following features of TDM of TCAs are reviewed: (1) the relationships between TCA concentration in plasma and the multiple pharmacologic actions and clinical effects of TCAs, (2) the use of TDM to improve antidepressant efficacy while avoiding both cardiac and brain toxicity, (3) the protocol to follow when using TDM of TCAs and the rationale behind it, and (4) common laboratory errors that can be readily avoided but that could otherwise lead to spurious results.

Adult↗

Therapeutic drug monitoring of antithyroid drugs in pregnancy: the knowledge gaps.

Despite being a common condition in pregnancy, and despite propylthiouracil (PTU) being perceived as safer than methimazole, there are virtually no epidemiological controlled studies on malformation rate an neurobehavioral outcomes with the former. This knowledge gap must be filled to ensure fetal safety.

Abnormalities, Drug-Induced↗

An update on therapeutic drug monitoring for antiretroviral drugs.

There is an increasing uptake of TDM of antiretroviral drugs, particularly in Europe. There is consensus that current antiretroviral drugs meet most of the criteria of drugs that can be considered as candidates for a TDM strategy. This review examines the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship for protease inibitors and non nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, give an overview of the published randomised clinical trials and then summarises the scenarios for use of TDM. Finally the development of the inhibitory quotient (IQ) concept is discussed.

Drug Monitoring↗

Therapeutic drug monitoring of antimetabolic cytotoxic drugs.

Therapeutic drug monitoring is not routinely used for cytotoxic agents. There are several reasons, but one major drawback is the lack of established therapeutic concentration ranges. Combination chemotherapy makes the establishment of therapeutic ranges for individual drugs difficult, the concentration-effect relationship for a single drug may not be the same as that when the drug is used in a drug combination. Pharmacokinetic optimization protocols for many classes of cytotoxic compounds exist in specialized centres, and some of these protocols are now part of large multicentre trials. Nonetheless, methotrexate is the only agent which is routinely monitored in most treatment centres. An additional factor, especially in antimetabolite therapy, is the existence of pharmacogenetic enzymes which play a major role in drug metabolism. Monitoring of therapy could include assay of phenotypic enzyme activities or genotype in addition to, or instead of, the more traditional measurement of parent drug or drug metabolites. The cytotoxic activities of mercaptopurine and fluorouracil are regulated by thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) and dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD), respectively. Lack of TPMT functional activity produces life-threatening mercaptopurine myelotoxicity. Very low DPD activity reduces fluorouracil breakdown producing severe cytotoxicity. These pharmacogenetic enzymes can influence the bioavailability, pharmacokinetics, toxicity and efficacy of their substrate drugs.

Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic↗

Therapeutic drug monitoring of immunosuppressant drugs in Marmara University Hospital.

Immunosuppressive therapy is the most crucial treatment of organ-transplanted patients. Both cyclosporin and tacrolimus have become a part of the standard immunosuppressive therapy for prevention of rejection. However, lower levels of these drugs are associated with insufficient therapy and eventually result in rejection of the organ, and, on the contrary, higher levels are associated with toxicity to certain organs such as liver and kidneys. Therefore, the levels of these drugs in body fluids should be monitored for the prevention of unwanted situations. In this retrospective study, the authors evaluated the 18-month profile of blood drug concentrations of cyclosporin and tacrolimus in patients admitted to the TDM Unit of the Marmara University Hospital (Istanbul, Turkey) between June 2000 and November 2001. A total of 578 blood samples (347 cyclosporin and 231 tacrolimus) from 134 patients (88 for cyclosporin, 46 for tacrolimus) were evaluated in this period. The therapeutic trough ranges were accepted as 100-350 ng/mL for cyclosporin and 5-20 ng/mL for tacrolimus, and levels below or above the identified levels were accepted to be subtherapeutic or toxic. Most of the results were found within the range of therapeutic levels (67.48% for cyclosporin and 82.71% for tacrolimus). Subtherapeutic levels were found in 19.92% of all cyclosporin and 10.53% of all tacrolimus assays, whereas toxic levels were seen in 12.60% and 6.77% of cyclosporin and tacrolimus results, respectively. In conclusion, this study gives information about the TDM practice in institutional clinical laboratory and also indicates the importance of critical information such as sampling time for individual decision making in dosage regiment.

Adolescent↗

Assessment of adherence to HIV protease inhibitors: comparison and combination of various methods, including MEMS (electronic monitoring), patient and nurse report, and therapeutic drug monitoring.

BACKGROUND: Adherence to protease inhibitor-containing antiretroviral therapy is crucial, but difficult to measure. OBJECTIVE: To compare and combine various methods of measuring adherence to the strict protease inhibitor-containing regimens. METHODS: The following methods were used: medication event monitoring system (MEMS) caps (electronic monitoring), therapeutic drug monitoring, pill count, pharmacy refill data, questionnaires, diaries (for registration of food patterns and special events related to the use of MEMS), adherence assessment by the physician and clinical nurse specialist, and in-depth interviews. In addition, ultrasensitive viral load and resistance testing was performed. RESULTS: Twenty-eight patients were included; data could be evaluated in 26. According to MEMS data, 25% of the patients took fewer than 95% of all doses, and two thirds of the patients took fewer than 95% of the doses on time. Only 43% of the patients showed good adherence with food restrictions. Methods that showed significant correlations with MEMS results were patients' self-reported adherence; therapeutic drug monitoring, indicating plasma levels outside predefined ranges; and estimation of adherence by a clinical nurse specialist, especially by in-depth interview. CONCLUSION: Diary-corrected MEMS data gave a detailed insight into patients' adherence patterns. Patients' self-report and therapeutic drug monitoring were significantly correlated with the MEMS data, and the clinical nurse specialist may also play a role in identifying patients who are imperfectly adherent.

Drug Monitoring↗

Therapeutic drug monitoring of the HIV/AIDS drugs abacavir, zidovudine, efavirenz, nevirapine, indinavir, lopinavir, and nelfinavir.

Combination therapy with antiretroviral drugs is used for the treatment of patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. To achieve optimal drug concentrations for viral suppression and avoidance of drug toxicity, monitoring of drug levels has been considered essential. We set up an analytical procedure for monitoring the plasma concentrations of a total of seven drugs: abacavir, zidovudine, efavirenz, nevirapine, indinavir, lopinavir, and nelfinavir. The plasma samples were liquid/liquid extracted and subjected to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. The compounds were monitored by ultraviolet detection: indinavir, lopinavir, and nelfinavir at 215 nm; efavirenz at 254 nm, and abacavir, zidovudine, and nevirapine at 266 nm. Two different extraction procedures and two different HPLC eluents on a C(8) reversed-phase HPLC column were used to monitor all seven compounds. Under steady state conditions, the plasma concentrations of antiviral drugs in 175 patients were correlated with the time after the last dosing to define the peak or trough levels. Due to the short plasma elimination half-life of abacavir and zidovudine, only peak levels could be determined for these compounds, whereas both peak and trough levels could be assessed for the other compounds because of a longer plasma elimination half-life. The mean peak concentrations (microg/ml) were 0.69 for abacavir and 0.57 for zidovudine; the mean peak/trough concentrations (microg/ml) were 2.07/1.32 for efavirenz, 2.43/2.23 for nevirapine, 5.48/1.08 for indinavir, 4.69/3.51 for lopinavir, and 3.54/1.45 for nelfinavir. The described analytical method offers a broad-spectrum monitoring of plasma levels of antiretroviral drugs.

Anti-HIV Agents↗

A prospective evaluation of therapeutic drug monitoring.

Since therapeutic drug monitoring is rapidly becoming a widely used tool in clinical medicine, we prospectively assessed 390 serum drug assays over a 4-week period to determine the appropriateness of serum sample collection. The results of appropriately collected samples were used to evaluate the ability of the physician to interpret and apply this information. Of the 244 samples evaluated in the study, 104 (43%) were inappropriately collected. The physician apparently misapplied the results in 40 of 101 (40%) instances. When combined, this represented a misuse of therapeutic drug monitoring 70% of the time and documented an unjustifiable expense of $3,600 for the 4 weeks. The magnitude of misuse of this tool warrants the implementation of measures to assure appropriate serum sampling and application of therapeutic drug monitoring.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗

The use of therapeutic drug monitoring data to document kinetic drug interactions: an example with amitriptyline and nortriptyline.

Therapeutic drug monitoring data for amitriptyline (AT) and nortriptyline (NT) collected during 10 years (total of 4,278 analyses in 2,937 patients) were evaluated to study how other drugs affect the kinetics at steady state. The distribution of the ratio concentration/daily dose (C/D) in patients treated with the antidepressant only was compared with that in patients on different concomitant drugs. Patients on phenothiazines or dextropropoxyphene had a significantly higher mean C/D of NT than controls, both when AT and when NT had been given. The highest values were seen with levomepromazine and thioridazine. On the contrary, the mean C/D of both AT and NT in patients on carbamazepine was about 50% lower than in those treated with the antidepressant only. Benzodiazepines did not affect the steady-state kinetics of AT or NT. Intraindividual comparisons of the ratio C/D in subjects with analyses performed when off and on concomitant drugs corroborate previous results showing that drugs metabolized by the debrisoquine hydroxylase (CYP2D6) inhibit the metabolism of NT and that carbamazepine induces the metabolism of both AT and NT. Modeling of the dose dependency of the NT interactions with levomepromazine, perphenazine, and thioridazine revealed that the ratio C/D was most affected at low doses of the antidepressant and at high doses of the phenothiazine. The distribution of the doses given was the same in patients on monotherapy as in patients with interacting drugs, which means that many patients treated with phenothiazines had concentrations above the therapeutic range and that most patients treated with carbamazepine had subtherapeutic levels. The present study shows that therapeutic drug monitoring may serve as a valuable tool to discover and quantify drug interactions.

Adolescent↗

Fluvoxamine but not sertraline inhibits the metabolism of olanzapine: evidence from a therapeutic drug monitoring service.

Therapeutic drug monitoring data of the new atypical neuroleptic drug olanzapine were used to study interactions with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors fluvoxamine and sertraline. The distribution of the ratio of concentration/daily dose (C/D; ng/mL per mg/d) of olanzapine was compared in three groups: patients treated with olanzapine (n = 134), patients treated with olanzapine plus fluvoxamine (n = 10) concomitantly, and patients treated with olanzapine plus sertraline (n = 21) concomitantly. No significant difference was seen between the olanzapine and the olanzapine plus sertraline groups. Patients receiving fluvoxamine in addition to olanzapine had C/D ratios that were in the mean 2.3-fold higher than patients receiving olanzapine without additional fluvoxamine. This indicated that fluvoxamine inhibits the metabolism of olanzapine, probably because of inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A2, whereas sertraline is unlikely to interfere with the metabolism of olanzapine. Combination therapy of olanzapine and fluvoxamine should be used cautiously, and therapeutic drug monitoring should be instituted to avoid olanzapine-induced adverse effects or intoxications.

Adult↗