天美传媒

Abstract

Patients suffering from chronic diseases will gain maximum benefit from oral therapy treatment only if they take their medication(s) as prescribed. Research suggests that up to ~60% of patients are currently prescribed either cardiovascular drugs or oral chemotherapy drugs, for example patients with breast cancer do not take their medication correctly. This high incidence of non-adherence has direct impact on patient health leading to complications and hospital re-admissions with consequent additional healthcare costs. In the US and UK the health service providers may be fined for re-admissions within 30 days of discharge. This study details checks on adherence to prescription medication using a single drop of blood, from a finger prick, collected on a card and allowed to dry. Liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) method was used for the determination of candidate drugs in the blood spot to confirm adherence to the prescription. Trials on 6 commonly UK used cardiovascular drugs are reported demonstrating the ability of the system to detect the target analytes during the 24 hour repeat prescription cycle. Samples from volunteers with confirmed adherence were used to validate the response from the system as were samples from volunteers receiving no medication. No false positives were observed and adherence assessment for Bisoprolol, Ramipril, Amolodipine, Valsartan, Doxasozin and Simvastatin was demonstrated. Furthermore, examples of incorrect adherence were identified.

Biography

Sangeeta Tanna is a Reader in Pharmaceutical Bioanalysis in the Leicester School of Pharmacy at De Montfort University. Her expertise and research interests lie in the bioanalysis and drug delivery fields. She has developed micro-analytical methodologies for the determination of therapeutic drugs from dried blood spots (DBS) based on LC-MS and LC-MS/MS studies for a range of clinical applications. This research was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Analytical Methods Prize in 2010. Demonstrated applications of this work to improve patient care include better medication for babies and the ability to identify non-adherent patients with cardiovascular diseases.