Role of therapeutic drug monitoring in the treatment of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, and resistance to anti-tuberculosis drugs is a challenge to effective treatment. Multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) can be difficult to treat, requiring long durations of therapy and the use of second line drugs, increasing a patient’s risk for toxicities and treatment failure. Given the challenges treating MDR-TB, clinicians can improve the likelihood of successful outcomes by utilizing therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). TDM is a clinical technique that utilizes measured drug concentrations from the patient to adjust therapy, increasing likelihood of therapeutic drug concentrations while minimizing the risk of toxic drug concentrations. This review paper provides an overview of the TDM process, pharmacokinetic parameters for MDR-TB drugs, and recommendations for dose adjustments following TDM.