Amiodarone Profile

There has been a growing interest in serum drug monitoring over the past decade since it has become obvious that drugs are more often over or under administered than was generally considered to be the case. For instance, a retrospective study covering several years found that phenytoin and theophylline concentrations were within the therapeutic range in only about 50% of the cases studied. A firm knowledge of pharmacokinetics is essential with respect to the determination and the interpretations of drug serum concentrations. It is evident that the pharmacological actions of certain drugs correlate better with their concentrations in serum or plasma than with the doses administered. Retrospective and current studies showed a clinical need for the individualization of dosage regimens based on drug monitoring, e.g. in the cases of theophylline, tobramycin, antiarrhythimics and some anti-epileptics. Because of the similarities of clinical and toxicological problems and since many techniques are applied to the solution of both, the "Senatskommission fuer Klinisch-toxikologisch Analytik" of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft started a reappraisal of drug monitoring.
This manuscript is a result of the discussions within the working group "Drug Monitoring". It appears as part of a series of publications of the Senate Commission dealing with monitoring of those drugs for which the determination of the concentration in blood is of paramount importance for a state-of-the-art therapy.