Published in:
01-09-2014 | Original Article
Pharmacokinetics of Lopinavir Determined with an ELISA Test in Youths with Perinatally Acquired HIV
Published in: Indian Journal of Pediatrics | Issue 9/2014
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Objective
To investigate the plasma levels of lopinavir by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in a cohort of patients who were vertically infected with human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV).
Methods
Plasma levels of lopinavir (Cmin) were determined by ELISA test in patients treated with lopinavir/ritonavir-based combined antiretroviral therapy who had achieved virological response after 4 wk of therapy. Reference lopinavir concentrations were Cmin 1–8 μg/mL. Correlation between lopinavir plasma concentration and continuous variables was evaluated by mean of Pearson correlation coefficient. Differences in lopinavir (LPV) concentration for binary categorical variables were assessed by Mann-Whitney test, while for variables with more than two categories Kruskal-Wallis test was used.
Results
Thirty-four patients were enroled; median age was 133 mo (15–265). The median lopinavir dose tested was 383.5 mg/kg (IQR: 266.6–400 mg/kg), with a median plasma concentration of 8.8 μg/mL (IQR: 5–14 μg/mL). Lopinavir Cmin was <1 μg/mL in only one sample (2.9 %), while 14 samples had Cmin between 1 and 8 μg/mL (41.2 %) and 19 (55.9 %) > 8 μg/mL. No significant correlations were found between plasma concentrations of lopinavir and the continuous variables considered in the study. A negative but, not completely significant, correlation was found between plasma drug concentration and body mass index (r = −0.29; p = 0.09).
Conclusions
The use of a simple and relatively cost-effective methodology might render therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) appeal in the daily clinical practice.