OBJECTIVES Intracranial infections due to multidrug- resistant (MDR) gram-negative pathogens are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. As therapeutic options are limited and systemic drug penetration into the infection focus is difficult, intraventricular therapy has been described. METHODS We report on a patient with intracranial abscess caused by MDR Acinetobacter baumannii. ...

BACKGROUND Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients receiving anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) agents can help optimise outcomes. Consensus statements based on current evidence will help the development of treatment guidelines. AIM To develop evidence-based consensus statements for TDM-guided anti-TNF therapy in IBD. METHODS A committee of 25 Australia...

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) typically requires painful blood drawn from patients. We propose a painless and minimally-invasive alternative for TDM using hollow microneedles suitable to extract extremely small volumes (<1 nL) of interstitial fluid to measure drug concentrations. The inner lumen of a microneedle is functionalized to be used as a micro-reactor during sample collection to tra...

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 ...

Cyclosporine is an immunomodulatory drug used to treat an increasing spectrum of diseases in dogs. Cyclosporine is a calcineurin inhibitor, ultimately exerting its inhibitory effects on T-lymphocytes by decreasing production of cytokines, such as interleukin-2. Although, in the United States, oral cyclosporine is approved in dogs only for treatment of atopic dermatitis, there are many other ind...

Purpose: To assess the prescribing and utilization pattern of vancomycin in Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH) in Oman. Methods: A retrospective study that included in-patients at SQUH who had used vancomycin from January 1 2009 to December 31 2009 was conducted to determine the utilization patterns of the drug vis a vis to the Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICP...

Objective: Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is the measurement of serum concentrations to optimize pharmacotherapy. Traditionally, blood pressure measurements alone, and not TDM, have been used evaluate antihypertensive response. However, approximately 50 % hypertensive patients treated by lifestyle changes drugs fail achieve control. Serum concentration could be useful select optimal in adjus...

Kaletra (Abott Laboratories) is a co-formulated medication used in the treatment of HIV-1-infected children, and it contains the two antiretroviral protease inhibitor drugs lopinavir and ritonavir. We validated two new ultrafast and high-throughput mass spectrometric assays to be used for therapeutic drug monitoring of lopinavir and ritonavir concentrations in whole blood and in plasma from HIV...

BACKGROUND Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) makes use of serum drug concentrations as an adjunct to decision-making. Preliminary data in our hospital showed that approximately one-fifth of all drugs monitored by TDM service were gentamicin. OBJECTIVE In this study, we evaluated the costs associated with providing the service in patients with bronchopneumonia and treated with gentamicin. ME...