Affiliation:
1. Department of City Hospital NHS Trust (Dudley Road), Birmingham B18 7QH, UK
2. Department of Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham B15 2TH, and the Regional Laboratory for Toxicology
Abstract
Thalidomide is now widely used to treat chronic graft-versus-host disease, but its use is associated with non-teratogenic side effects such as peripheral neuropathy. To examine the value of monitoring plasma concentrations of the drug in such patients, we have developed a high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) assay. The method uses 0·5 mL plasma, is linear to 10 mg/L and had a detection limit of 0·2 mg/L. Thalidomide in plasma specimens was unstable at physiological pH but could be stabilized for several weeks by simple acidification. We describe a protocol for monitoring patients treated with thalidomide which permits convenient transportation and storage of specimens and report, provisionally, that plasma concentrations in the range 1–7 mg/L are therapeutically effective in chronic graft-versus-host disease without adverse side effects.
Subject
Clinical Biochemistry,General Medicine
Cited by
23 articles.
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