Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) repertoire in Norway.

BACKGROUND

In many clinical situations it is useful to measure drug levels in patient samples. The purpose of this survey is to obtain an overview of the therapeutic drug monitoring analyses offered by Norwegian laboratories.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

At the end of 2011, the authors of this article phoned all the public and private hospitals in Norway, and located their laboratories. All clinical chemical and pharmacological laboratories were contacted and asked to state which drug analyses (including drugs-of-abuse and toxic alcohols, but excluding metabolites) they performed in blood/serum at the time in question. The overview thus obtained was updated and quality assured by means of further telephone contact with the laboratories in August 2012.

RESULTS

Around 80 laboratories were contacted. In August 2012, 49 of them performed analyses of drugs in blood/serum. Altogether, these laboratories offered 151 different analyses. This article provides an overview of the analyses that were carried out, and where.

INTERPRETATION

The overview of analyses provided here can be used as a tool in everyday practice. However, the user must be aware that the analytical repertoire of the laboratories is constantly changing. A web-based, dynamic version is currently being planned.