Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Voriconazole

Influence of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Voriconazole on Incidence of Drug Adverse Reaction

The purpose of this study is to determine whether therapeutic drug monitoring of voriconazole is useful in the treatment of invasive fungal infection.

Voriconazole is an anti-fungal agent, which is used in the treatment of invasive fungal infection, especially aspergillosis. The serious side effects of voriconazole include liver function abnormality, encephalopathy, etc. Recently, the several studies showed that the blood level of voriconazole is variable and it is associated with drug side effect and treatment outcome. However, there is no randomized controlled study which proves that therapeutic drug monitoring of voriconazole can improve the clinical outcome in routine clinical practice.

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients who were 16 years of age or older
• receiving voriconazole in order to treat invasive fungal infections or for empirical use

Exclusion Criteria:

• who experienced the serious side effect of voriconazole
• were hypersensitive to azoles
• had an aminotransferase, bilirubin, or alkaline phosphatase level higher than five times the upper limit of normal