RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Retrospective analysis of the correlation between tacrolimus concentrations measured in whole blood and variations of blood cell counts in patients undergoing allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation
JF European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy
JO Eur J Hosp Pharm
FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group
SP e7
OP e11
DO 10.1136/ejhpharm-2018-001663
VO 27
IS e1
A1 Naoki Yoshikawa
A1 Shuhei Urata
A1 Kazuya Yasuda
A1 Hiroshi Sekiya
A1 Yasutoshi Hirabara
A1 Manabu Okumura
A1 Ryuji Ikeda
YR 2020
UL http://ejhp.bmj.com/content/27/e1/e7.abstract
AB Objective Tacrolimus is administered to patients undergoing haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) as prophylaxis for graft-versus-host disease. As a high blood tacrolimus concentration within a narrow therapeutic range must be maintained after HSCT, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is necessary. We investigated the correlation between blood tacrolimus concentration and blood cell count in HSCT patients to assess how changes in blood cell count affect tacrolimus TDM.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for 24 patients who underwent allogeneic HSCT and received tacrolimus. The correlation between variations in blood tacrolimus concentration and blood cell count was evaluated for three consecutive weeks, starting 1 week after HSCT.Results Variations in blood tacrolimus concentration were significantly correlated with variations in red blood cell (RBC) count, haemoglobin level and haematocrit value, but not with variations in white blood cell or platelet counts. Further, the above variations were significantly correlated in patients undergoing cord blood transplantation and peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, but not in those undergoing bone marrow transplantation.Conclusions These findings demonstrate that RBC count is associated with variations in blood tacrolimus concentration, with the relevance of this association depending on the source of transfused stem cells. Thus, variations in RBC count might be useful for tacrolimus TDM.