What is therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM)? Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is
testing that measures the amount of certain medicines in your blood
. It is done to make sure the amount of medicine you are taking is both safe and effective. Most medicines can be dosed correctly without special testing.
What is the purpose of therapeutic drugs?
The purpose of using drugs is
to relieve symptoms, treat infection, reduce the risk of future disease
, and destroy selected cells such as in the chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer.
Why is therapeutic drug monitoring important?
The selection of drugs for therapeutic drug monitoring is important as the concentrations of many drugs are not clearly related to their effects. For selected drugs therapeutic drug monitoring aims
to enhance drug efficacy
, reduce toxicity or assist with diagnosis.
What are the indications of therapeutic drug monitoring?
- after initiating treatment.
- after adjusting dose.
- if treatment is failing.
- if non-compliance is suspected.
- when starting or stopping a potentially interacting
drug
. - if there is a change in a patient’s physiology (eg. …
- to assess for
drug
toxicity or suspected overdose.
What is the essence of therapeutic drug monitoring with drug concentration?
Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is the
practice of measuring the concentration of drug in the bloodstream
, at pre-defined intervals. It helps to individualize the dosage regimen for patients and thus maintain the desired level of drug substance in patients’ body.
How do you use drug monitoring?
Practice of therapeutic drug monitoring
Nowadays, most other drugs can be readily measured in blood or plasma using versatile methods such as
liquid chromatography
–mass spectrometry or gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, which progressively replaced high-performance liquid chromatography.
What are therapeutic levels?
The therapeutic level of a drug in the bloodstream is
the range within which that drug is expected to be effective
. Your doctor can request a test to measure the amount of a specific drug in the serum portion of your blood.
What are the 3 most important properties of a drug?
Key Points
The most important properties of an ideal drug are:
effectiveness, safety, and selectivity
.
What are the factors affecting drug action?
- Type of drug.
- Quantity of drug used.
- Method of drug use.
- Time taken to consume.
- Tolerance.
- Gender, size and amount of muscle.
- Use of other psycho-active drugs.
- Mood or attitude.
When do you do Therapeutic Drug Monitoring?
Why do I need TDM? You may need
testing when you first start taking a medicine
. This helps your provider figure out the most effective dose for you. Once that dose is determined, you may be tested regularly to make sure the medicine is still effective without being harmful.
Is a characteristic of drug associated with TDM?
Drugs that are candidates for TDM should satisfy pharmacological properties such as a
narrow therapeutic index
, significant pharmacokinetic variability, presence of a reasonable relationship between drug concentration and clinical effect, and an established target for concentration range [2].
What does it mean when a drug is in therapeutic range?
The therapeutic range of a drug is
the dosage range or blood plasma or serum concentration usually expected to achieve the desired therapeutic effect
. This does not mean that patients may not achieve benefit at concentrations below the minimum threshold, or may not experience adverse effects if kept within the range.
What is meant by therapeutic drug monitoring?
Therapeutic drug monitoring is
the measurement of specific drugs and/or their breakdown products (metabolites) at timed intervals to maintain a relatively constant concentration of the medication in the blood
.
What is the best specimen for drug monitoring?
Serum
is the preferred specimen for therapeutic drug monitoring, because drug concentrations in the specimen reflect the drug’s disposition at collection time. When the time and amount of the previous dose are known, the measurement can be compared with a predicted blood concentration of the drug.
When is a drug therapeutic?
Therapeutic: Relating to therapeutics, the branch of medicine that is concerned specifically with the treatment of disease. The therapeutic dose of a drug is
the amount needed to treat a disease
.
What drugs require therapeutic drug monitoring?
- Introduction. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring aims to individualise drug therapy and avoid both sub- therapeutic and toxic plasma drug concentrations. …
- Carbamazepine.
- Ciclosporin.
- Digoxin.
- Gentamicin.
- Lithium.
- Phenytoin.
- Theophylline (aminophylline)
