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Updated: Aug 29, 2025

Multiplex Therapeutic Drug Monitoring by Isotope-dilution HPLC-MS/MS of Antibiotics in Critical Illnesses
Published on: August 30, 2018
Right dose, right now: bedside, real-time, data-driven, and personalised antibiotic dosing in critically ill patients
Luca F Roggeveen1, Tingjie Guo2,3,4, Lucas M Fleuren2
1Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Laboratory for Critical Care Computational Intelligence (LCCCI), Amsterdam Medical Data Science (AMDS), Amsterdam Cardiovascular Science (ACS), Amsterdam Institute for Infection and Immunity (AI&II), Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. l.roggeveen@amsterdamumc.nl.
Background:
Adequate antibiotic dosing may improve outcomes in critically ill patients but is challenging due to altered and variable pharmacokinetics. To address this challenge, AutoKinetics was developed, a decision support system for bedside, real-time, data-driven and personalised antibiotic dosing. This study evaluates the feasibility, safety and efficacy of its clinical implementation.
Methods:
In this two-centre randomised clinical trial, critically ill patients with sepsis or septic shock were randomised to AutoKinetics dosing or standard dosing for four antibiotics: vancomycin, ciprofloxacin, meropenem, and ceftriaxone. Adult patients with a confirmed or suspected infection and either lactate > 2 mmol/L or vasopressor requirement were eligible for inclusion. The primary outcome was pharmacokinetic target attainment in the first 24 h after randomisation. Clinical endpoints included mortality, ICU length of stay and incidence of acute kidney injury.
Results:
After inclusion of 252 patients, the study was stopped early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the ciprofloxacin intervention group, the primary outcome was obtained in 69% compared to 3% in the control group (OR 62.5, CI 11.4-1173.78, p < 0.001). Furthermore, target attainment was faster (26 h, CI 18-42 h, p < 0.001) and better (65% increase, CI 49-84%, p < 0.001). For the other antibiotics, AutoKinetics dosing did not improve target attainment. Clinical endpoints were not significantly different. Importantly, higher dosing did not lead to increased mortality or renal failure.
Conclusions:
In critically ill patients, personalised dosing was feasible, safe and significantly improved target attainment for ciprofloxacin.
Trial Registration:
The trial was prospectively registered at Netherlands Trial Register (NTR), NL6501/NTR6689 on 25 August 2017 and at the European Clinical Trials Database (EudraCT), 2017-002478-37 on 6 November 2017.
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