Therapeutic drug monitoring in antituberculosis chemotherapy: clinical perspectives.
BACKGROUND
Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) represents an area where multidisciplinary service is rendered for optimization of clinical care, through enabling maximum drug therapeutic efficacy and minimum drug toxicity. This is a recently developed field for antituberculosis chemotherapy. The other goals of TDM principally include study and management of pharmacokinetic drug-drug and drug-disease interactions as well as the evaluation of new fixed-dose combinations (FDC) developed for treatment of tuberculosis.


CONCLUSIONS
In the years to come, with the advancement in knowledge, technology and expertise, it is hoped that TDM, as a novel paradigm of care in tuberculosis, may gain expanding indications and reach a new horizon.
Yew
W W
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Tuberculosis and Chest Unit, Grantham Hospital, 125 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Aberdeen, Hong Kong, China.
D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000493:pharmacokinetics* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004347:Drug Interactions; D016903:Drug Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000188:drug therapy*
D000995:Antitubercular Agents