2026 · The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · open access
A prospective pharmacokinetic interaction study between rifampicin and fusidic acid for the treatment of staphylococcal infections
Maggs et al.
The finding, in our words
Dried blood spot sampling captured pharmacokinetic profiles of fusidic acid and rifampicin in ten participants. Three-times-daily fusidic acid dosing produced autoinhibition that counteracted rifampicin-mediated clearance induction, but inter-individual variability in absorption and clearance remained high.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
Using quantitative dried blood spot microsampling from 72 neonates, the authors developed a population pharmacokinetic model for ceftazidime that identified postmenstrual age and body weight as significant covariates influencing drug clearance and volume of distribution. Monte Carlo simulations supported dosing regimens of 25 mg/kg every 6-8 hours or 75 mg/kg every 12 hours for neonates 32-42 weeks postmenstrual age, demonstrating feasibility of decentralised therapeutic drug monitoring in vulnerable paediatric populations.
Yin et al., Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · source ↗
A systematic review found mixed economic evidence for microsampling in therapeutic drug monitoring; one study reported no cost reduction with DBS home-sampling, €688 versus €676, whilst another predicted savings up to 61%. The authors caution that more work is required to assess costs alongside clinical outcomes and optimise logistics for decentralised implementation.
Carland et al., British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (paywalled) · source ↗
A quantitative dried blood spot method using only 10 µL of blood successfully quantified six azole antimycotics and showed samples were stable under conditions simulating postal mailing. A formula to convert dried spot results to plasma values was derived, though the authors note this is an in vitro validation and clinical studies are required for translation to patient care.
Li et al., Therapeutic drug monitoring (paywalled) · source ↗
The study found that dried blood spot sampling showed good agreement with plasma concentrations for vancomycin and creatinine, with most differences within 20%, and patients preferred the finger prick method over venepuncture, supporting its use for decentralised therapeutic drug monitoring.
Hassanzai et al., The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · source ↗
An LC-MS/MS dried blood spot assay for five tuberculosis drugs achieved correlation coefficients of 0.87–0.99 against plasma methods, with more than 67% of samples within 20% of plasma values, meeting EMA reproducibility standards. This shows interchangeability with conventional sampling and supports decentralised therapeutic drug monitoring for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis in low-resource settings.
Kenfack Teponnou et al., Journal of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences (paywalled) · source ↗