title: The relationship between pharmacokinetic parameters of carbamazepine and therapeutic response in epileptic patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The prescribed dose and carbamazepine plasma concentration to achieve the optimal therapeutic efficacy are highly variable from one patient to the other. Our study aimed to determine whether biological parameters may be used as plasma markers that can individually adjust the carbamazepine dose necessary to optimize therapeutic efficacy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ninety-four epileptic patients under carbamazepine monotherapy and who have never used combination therapy were recruited from the consecutive admissions at the Department of Neurology "CHU Sahloul" of Sousse Central Hospital in Tunisia from February 2010 to April 2011. The patients were monitored for epilepsy for three years on average. Carbamazepine and 10,11-epoxide-carbamazepine concentrations were analyzed through high-performance liquid chromatography. Simultaneously, therapeutic efficacy was assessed through the annual number of seizures in each patient.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our results showed the absence of any significant correlations between specific dose (mg/kg/day), carbamazepine plasma concentrations and therapeutic efficacy (r= 0.0025,p= 0.30;r= 0.1584,p= 0.38 respectively), whereas both plasma 10,11-epoxide-carbamazepine concentration and 10,11-epoxide-carbamazepine to plasma carbamazepine ratio were closely correlated with therapeutic efficacy (r= 0.34,p= 0.03;r= 0.45,p= 0.008 respectively). The optimum therapeutic response was observed among patients who simultaneously had a plasma concentration of 0.8 μg/ml of metabolite and 5.5 μg/ml of carbamazepine.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that plasma levels of both carbamazepine and of 10,11-epoxide-carbamazepine must be set to achieve an optimum therapeutic response.
authors.affiliation: Metabolic Biophysics, Professional and Applied Toxicology Environmental Laboratory, Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine Sousse, Sousse University, Sousse, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Chahra
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chbili
authors.affiliation: Neurology Department of Central Hospital University (CHU), Sousse University, Sousse, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Anis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hassine
authors.affiliation: Metabolic Biophysics, Professional and Applied Toxicology Environmental Laboratory, Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine Sousse, Sousse University, Sousse, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Aicha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Laouani
authors.affiliation: Neurology Department of Central Hospital University (CHU), Sousse University, Sousse, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Sana Ben
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Amor
authors.affiliation: Metabolic Biophysics, Professional and Applied Toxicology Environmental Laboratory, Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine Sousse, Sousse University, Sousse, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Manel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nouira
authors.affiliation: Neurology Department of Central Hospital University (CHU), Sousse University, Sousse, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Sofiène Ben
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Ammou
authors.affiliation: Metabolic Biophysics, Professional and Applied Toxicology Environmental Laboratory, Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine Sousse, Sousse University, Sousse, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Saad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saguem
keywords: 10; 11-epoxide-carbamazepine; carbamazepine; epileptic patients; number of seizures