Monographs on drugs which are frequently analyzed in therapeutic drug monitoring / Arzneimittel-Monographien für Medikamente, die regelmäßig im Rahmen des Therapeutic Drug Monitorings analysiert werden

In addition to the monographs which have been published recently by the working group “Drug Monitoring” of the Swiss Society of Clinical Chemistry (SSCC) [1, 2], new monographs have been written. The aim of these monographs is to provide an overview on the information which is important for the request and interpretation of the results. Therefore, the targeted readers are laboratory health professionals and the receivers of the reports. In this series, aminoglycoside as well as glycopeptide antibiotics are presented. In addition, two antimycotic drugs, which are regularly quantified in sera of intensive care patients, are described. Also, the monograph on mebendazole is shown. This drug is often used in high doses for the treatment of infections with Echinococcus multilocularis for which the measurement of drug concentrations in serum is recommended. Information on the indication for therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), protein binding, metabolic pathways and enzymes involved, elimination half-life and elimination routes, and therapeutic or toxic concentrations is provided. Because pre-analytical considerations are of particular importance for therapeutic drug monitoring, there is also information given at which time the determination of the drug concentration is reasonable and when steady-state concentrations are reached after changing the dose. Furthermore, the stability of the drug and its metabolite(s) after blood sampling is described. For readers with a specific interest, references to important publications are provided. The number of the monographs will be continuously increased. The updated files are presented on the homepage of the SSCC (www.sscc.ch). We hope that these monographs are helpful for the better handling of therapeutic drug monitoring and we are looking forward to comments by the readers. In Ergänzung zu den in den letzten Jahren publizierten Arzneimittelmonographien der Arbeitsgruppe Medikamente der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Klinische Chemie (SGKC) [1, 2], sind nun weitere Monographien erstellt worden. Ziel dieser Monographien ist es, dem Labormediziner bzw. dem Empfänger der Befunde eine Übersicht über die wichtigsten Informationen zu geben, die für die Veranlassung einer Analyse bzw. für die Interpretation der Resultate hilfreich sind. In dieser Serie werden die Aminoglykosid- und Glykopeptidantibiotika präsentiert, wie auch zwei Antimykotika, bei denen vor allem bei Intensivpatienten immer häufiger Messungen im Serum durchgef