{"id":15576,"date":"2019-12-12T15:50:19","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T15:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https://medartslab.com/?p=15576"},"modified":"2019-12-12T15:50:21","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T15:50:21","slug":"reasons-why-therapeutic-drug-monitoring-is-ordered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https://medartslab.com/reasons-why-therapeutic-drug-monitoring-is-ordered/","title":{"rendered":"Reasons Why Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Is Ordered"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

People take many medications prescribed by doctors every day, but very few people ever need their body\u2019s response to their medications monitored through blood testing<\/a>. This is because years of scientific medical research has aided doctors in appropriately prescribing medications for patients based on their age, weight and medical history. However, there are some individual cases when a patient may be required to undergo therapeutic drug monitoring for specific medications due to the patient\u2019s medical conditions and corresponding medications \u2014 all in order to ensure that the prescribed medications remain at normal levels within the body without becoming toxic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s gain a better understanding of what exactly is therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), its purpose, when it may be ordered by your doctor and which prescription medications often require TDM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Therapeutic Monitoring?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Therapeutic drug monitoring is a medical practice that measures prescribed medications, or drugs, at routine intervals within a patient\u2019s blood in order to regulate safe dosages of the monitored drug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More specifically, Ju-Seop Kang and Min-Ho Lee, in an \u201cOverview of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring<\/a>,\u201d define therapeutic drug monitoring as \u201c… the clinical laboratory measurement of a chemical parameter that, with appropriate medical interpretation, will directly influence drug prescribing procedures. Otherwise, TDM refers to the individualization of drug dosage by maintaining plasma or blood drug concentrations within a targeted therapeutic range or window.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority of medications do not require therapeutic drug monitoring<\/a> due to wider therapeutic indexes, which are the ratios between toxic and therapeutic doses of medication. The more narrow the therapeutic index is for a drug in relation to the patient, the more likely therapeutic drug monitoring will be required via blood tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purpose of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of the most frequent and effective methods of therapeutic drug monitoring is through plasma drug concentrations, which are obtained from a patient\u2019s blood samples. There could be a number of reasons for which blood monitoring would be required by a doctor. While the general purpose of therapeutic drug monitoring is to evaluate the levels of a prescribed drug in a patient\u2019s bloodstream, the data gained from the testing can provide doctors and medical staff important information on how to proceed with necessary forms of treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plasma drug concentrations as part of TDM can be used for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n