title: Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) repertoire in Norway.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In many clinical situations it is useful to measure drug levels in patient samples. The purpose of this survey is to obtain an overview of the therapeutic drug monitoring analyses offered by Norwegian laboratories.
  
  
  METHODS
  At the end of 2011, the authors of this article phoned all the public and private hospitals in Norway, and located their laboratories. All clinical chemical and pharmacological laboratories were contacted and asked to state which drug analyses (including drugs-of-abuse and toxic alcohols, but excluding metabolites) they performed in blood/serum at the time in question. The overview thus obtained was updated and quality assured by means of further telephone contact with the laboratories in August 2012.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Around 80 laboratories were contacted. In August 2012, 49 of them performed analyses of drugs in blood/serum. Altogether, these laboratories offered 151 different analyses. This article provides an overview of the analyses that were carried out, and where.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The overview of analyses provided here can be used as a tool in everyday practice. However, the user must be aware that the analytical repertoire of the laboratories is constantly changing. A web-based, dynamic version is currently being planned.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacology, St. Olav University Hospital, Norway. andreas.westin@legemidler.no
authors.forename: Andreas Austgulen
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Westin
authors.forename: Ruth-Anne
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.forename: Ketil Arne
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Espnes
authors.forename: Olav
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Spigset
mesh_terms: D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016903:Drug Monitoring / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007755:Laboratories, Hospital / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009664:Norway