Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic considerations of antimicrobial drug therapy in cancer patients with kidney dysfunction

Qualitative changes in clinical records after implementation of pharmacist-led antimicrobial stewardship program: a text mining analysis

BACKGROUND

Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are essential for optimizing antimicrobial use, but many medium-sized hospitals lack infectious disease (ID) specialists. Ward pharmacists can contribute to ASPs, but the qualitative changes in their practice patterns after ASP implementation remains unclear. We aimed to explore the potential of text mining as a novel methodology to evaluate changes in ward pharmacist antimicrobial management practices after ASP implementation in a medium-sized hospital without ID physicians.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective observational analysis of data documented in clinical records by ward pharmacists in a 313-bed community hospital from April 2014 to March 2022. The ASP team conducted weekly reviews of targeted patients, provided feedback to physicians, and shared recommendations with ward pharmacists who then collaborated to optimize antimicrobial therapy. Using Python-based text mining with standardized technical terms and compound word extraction, we performed morphological analysis, co-occurrence network analysis, and hierarchical clustering to evaluate documentation patterns before and after ASP implementation in April 2018. Co-occurrence relationships were assessed using Dice coefficients (threshold, ≥ 0.3), and communities were detected using the Louvain algorithm. Changes in documentation patterns were compared using Fisher's exact test.

RESULTS

The analysis included 1,353 pre-ASP and 5,155 post-ASP clinical records containing antimicrobial-related terms, which increased from 3.12 to 7.81% of the total pharmacy records. New strong co-occurrence relationships emerged in the post-ASP period for several laboratory parameters (c-reactive protein, 0.646; estimated glomerular filtration rate, 0.594; and white blood cell count, 0.582). Network analysis revealed a shift from medication-focused communities (Medication Review, Prescription Verification, and Patient Education) to infection-focused communities (Infection Assessment, Microbiological Review, and Severe Infection Management). Although Antimicrobial Management was consistently used in both periods (odds ratio [OR]: 0.70, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.38-1.20), cross-tabulation analysis increased significantly in Laboratory Monitoring (OR: 1.58, 95% CI: 1.39-1.78) and Infection Assessment (OR: 2.09, 95% CI: 1.85-2.36).

CONCLUSIONS

This pilot application of text mining demonstrated potential as a novel methodology for objectively evaluating qualitative changes in clinical practice patterns following ASP implementation, successfully identifying shifts in pharmacists' documentation focus and providing a foundation for future multi-center validation studies across diverse healthcare settings.

Effects of inpatient creatinine testing frequency on acute kidney injury identification and staging: a historical cohort study

BACKGROUND

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a multifactorial condition often induced by drugs commonly used in hospitals. Identifying and staging AKI necessitates frequent monitoring of renal function.

AIM

To assess the impact of real-world hospital practices regarding serum creatinine (SCr) testing on the identification and staging of AKI, and its implications for adjusting drug doses.

METHOD

A historical cohort study utilizing hospital records from all adult patients admitted between 01/06/2018 and 31/12/2020 was conducted. Patients with no SCr assessment during their stay or those with an SCr at admission ≥ 2 mg/dL were excluded. AKI was determined using two criteria, namely AKIN and KDIGO, considering the time intervals between two SCr tests as outlined in the criteria. Additionally, patients with SCr increases exceeding AKI limits, regardless the time interval, were also identified. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and kinetic eGFR (KeGFR) were calculated.

RESULTS

During the study period, 17,269 hospitalizations and 62,255 SCr tests were recorded. Among the 17,032 hospitalizations with a length of stay > 48 h, 46.8% experienced periods with no SCr tests performed for more than 48 h. Any stage of AKI was identified in 7.0% of patients and in 9.1% using AKI and KDIGO criteria, respectively. Ignoring time limits in both criteria revealed potential AKI in 1942 patients (11.2%), indicating a potential underdiagnosis of AKI by 37.5% or 19.1%, depending on the criteria used. A total of 76 drugs requiring dose adjustment in patients with eGFR ≤ 50 ml/min were prescribed in 78.5% admissions. These drugs were prescribed in 87.9% of patients potentially underdiagnosed with AKIN and in 88.9% with KDIGO.

CONCLUSION

There is a need for changes in the established hospital procedures to ensure more frequent testing of SCr levels. Implementing an advanced scope of practice for clinical pharmacists could support these changes.

Semi-Automated Therapeutic Drug Monitoring as a Pillar toward Personalized Medicine for Tuberculosis Management

Standard tuberculosis (TB) management has failed to control the growing number of drug-resistant TB cases worldwide. Therefore, innovative approaches are required to eradicate TB. Model-informed precision dosing and therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) have become promising tools for adjusting anti-TB drug doses corresponding with individual pharmacokinetic profiles. These are crucial to improving the treatment outcome of the patients, particularly for those with complex comorbidity and a high risk of treatment failure. Despite the actual benefits of TDM at the bedside, conventional TDM encounters several hurdles related to laborious, time-consuming, and costly processes. Herein, we review the current practice of TDM and discuss the main obstacles that impede it from successful clinical implementation. Moreover, we propose a semi-automated TDM approach to further enhance precision medicine for TB management.

PBPK Modeling and Simulation and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring: Possible Ways for Antibiotic Dose Adjustment

Pharmacokinetics (PK) is a branch of pharmacology present and of vital importance for the research and development (R&D) of new drugs, post-market monitoring, and continued optimizations in clinical contexts. Ultimately, pharmacokinetics can contribute to improving patients’ clinical outcomes, helping enhance the efficacy of treatments, and reducing possible adverse side effects while also contributing to precision medicine. This article discusses the methods used to predict and study human pharmacokinetics and their evolution to the current physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling and simulation methods. The importance of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) and PBPK as valuable tools for Model-Informed Precision Dosing (MIPD) are highlighted, with particular emphasis on antibiotic therapy since dosage adjustment of antibiotics can be vital to ensure successful clinical outcomes and to prevent the spread of resistant bacterial strains.

The Glomerular Filtration Rate Estimators in the Pharmacokinetic Modelling in Acute Kidney Injury: An Observational Study

The glomerular filtration rate (GFR), according to which the drug dose for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is adjusted, is computed with estimators (eGFR) that are developed specifically for CKD. These particular types of estimators are also used in population pharmacokinetic (pop PK) modelling in drug development. Similar approaches without scientific validation have been proposed for patients with acute kidney injury (AKI), yet it is uncertain which specific eGFR should be used for drug dosing or in pop PK models in patients with AKI. In our study, we included 34 patients with AKI and vancomycin (VCM) treatment, and we built both individual PK and pop PK (non-linear mixed-effects, one-compartment) models to see which eGFR estimator is the best covariate. In these models different eGFRs (Cockcroft-Gault, MDRD, CKD-EPI 2009, Jelliffe and Jelliffe, Chen et al., and Yashiro et al. 2013) were used. We included six additional patients to validate the final pop PK model. All eGFRs underrate the true renal clearance in the AKI, so we created pop PK models for VCM dosing in AKI with all eGFRs, to discover that the most accurate model was the one with the Cockcroft-Gault estimator. Since the eGFRs underestimate the true renal clearance in AKI, they are inaccurate for clinical drug dosing decisions, with the exception of the Cockcroft-Gault one, which is appropriate for the pop PK models intended for drug development purposes in AKI.

Clinical Pharmacodynamics: Principles of Drug Response and Alterations in Kidney Disease

Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics follow the logic of cause and consequence. Receptor-mediated and reversible effects can be distinguished from direct and irreversible effects. Reversible effects are capacity-limited and saturable whereas irreversible effects are limited only by the number of viable targets. In the case of receptor-mediated and reversible effects a threshold and a ceiling concentration can be defined. Antimicrobial drugs with concentration-dependent action are distinguished from drugs with time-dependent action. Concentration-dependent effects are associated with a high ceiling concentration and the target is the high peak. Time-dependent effects are associated with a high threshold concentration and the target is the high trough. During kidney dysfunction, alterations of drug response are usually attributed to pharmacokinetic but rarely to pharmacodynamic changes. Dose adjustment calculations, therefore, tacitly presume that pharmacodynamic parameters remain unchanged while only pharmacokinetic parameters are altered in kidney failure. Kidney dysfunction influences the pharmacokinetic parameters of at least 50% of all essential drugs. Clinicians usually consider pharmacokinetics when kidney disease is found, but pharmacodynamics is as important. Alterations of pharmacodynamic parameters are conceivable but only rarely reported in kidney failure. Sometimes surprising dosing adjustments are needed when pharmacodynamic concepts are brought into the decision process of which dose to choose. Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics should both be considered when any dosing regimen is determined.

Transdermal optical renal function monitoring in humans: development, verification, and validation of a prototype device

A prototype medical device for monitoring kidney function by transdermal measurement of the clearance rate of the exogenous fluorescent tracer agent MB-102 (administered intravenously) was developed. Verification of the device with an in vitro protocol is described. The expected renal clearance of the agent was mimicked by preparing a dilution series of MB-102 in the presence of a scattering agent. The slope of a linear fit to the logarithm of fluorescence intensity as a function of dilution step agreed with predictions within 5%, a level of accuracy that would be adequate in assessment of GFR to prevent misdiagnosis of kidney disease. Transdermal measurement was validated using a rat model. A two-compartment pharmacokinetic dependence was observed, with equilibration of the fluorescent agent between the vascular space into which it was injected and the extracellular space into which it subsequently diffused. The best observed signal-to-noise ratios were about 150, allowing determination of the renal clearance time with 5% precision using a 10-min fitting window. Based on the verification and validation methods for transdermal fluorescence detection described herein, the instrument has been approved by the FDA for a first-in-human clinical study, and a first transdermal clearance curve in a human is presented herein.

Neutropenia is independently associated with sub-therapeutic serum concentration of vancomycin

BACKGROUND

We aimed to identify the impact of the presence of neutropenia on serum vancomycin concentration (SVC).

METHODS

A retrospective study was conducted from January 2005 to December 2015. The study population was comprised of adult patients who were performed serum concentration of vancomycin. Patients with renal failure or using non-conventional dosages of vancomycin were excluded.

RESULTS

A total of 1307 adult patients were included in this study, of whom 163 (12.4%) were neutropenic. Patients with neutropenia presented significantly lower SVCs than non-neutropenic patients (P<0.0001). Multiple linear regressions showed significant association between neutropenia and trough SVC (beta coefficients, -2.351; P=0.004). Multiple logistic regression analysis also revealed a significant association between sub-therapeutic vancomycin concentrations (trough SVC values<10mg/l) and neutropenia (odds ratio, 1.75, P=0.029) CONCLUSIONS: The presence of neutropenia is significantly associated with low SVC, even after adjusting for other variables. Therefore, neutropenic patients had a higher risk of sub-therapeutic SVC compared with non-neutropenic patients. We recommended that vancomycin therapy should be monitored with TDM-guided optimization of dosage and intervals, especially in neutropenic patients.