In 1995 the working group "Drug Monitoring" of the Swiss Society of Clinical Chemistry (SSCC) has already published a printed version of drug monographs, which are now newly compiled and presented in a standardised manner. The aim of these monographs is to give an overview on the most important informations that are necessary in order to request a drug analysis or is helpful to interpret the results. Therefore, the targeted audience are laboratory health professionals or the receivers of the reports.
There is information provided on the indication for therapeutic drug monitoring, protein binding, metabolic pathways and enzymes involved, elimination half life time and elimination routes as well as information on therapeutic or toxic concentrations.
Because preanalytical considerations are of particular importance for therapeutic drug monitoring, there is also information given at which time the determination of the drug concentration is reasonable and when steady-state concentrations are reached after changing the dose. Furthermore, the stability of the drug and its metabolite(s), respectively, after blood sampling is described.
For readers with a specific interest, references to important publications are given.
The number of the monographs will be continuously enlarged. The updated files are presented on the homepage of the SSCC (www.sscc.ch).