Cyclosporine monitoring in stable, long-term, pediatric kidney transplant recipients: the value of C2 determination

Although a generalized consensus has been reached for therapeutic drug monitoring of cyclosporine microemulsion in adult transplant patients, clear guidelines are recently not available for the pediatric population. In this retrospective analysis of pharmacokinetic data obtained from stable, long-term, pediatric kidney transplant recipients, we sought to define a possible approach to manage cyclosporine therapy in a pediatric setting. The 2-hour postdose cyclosporine blood concentration, C2, rather than trough levels, was the best single time point predictor of the area under the concentration curve. We concluded that therapeutic drug monitoring of cyclosporine-based immunosuppressive regimens should be tailored based on C2 determinations for pediatric kidney transplant recipients.