Book description
The tools for detecting false positives, false negatives, and
interference in interactions when testing and monitoring therapeutic
drug use
For physicians monitoring a patient's progress, efficacy of treatment
is often linked to a patient's response to medication. Determining
whether a patient is taking the prescribed amount, the drug or dosage
is effective, or the prescribed medication is interacting with other
drugs can be determined through drug testing. Written as a guide for
toxicologists, chemists, and health professionals involved in patient
care, Resolving Erroneous Reports in Toxicology and Therapeutic
Drug Monitoring provides an up-to-date introduction to the tests
and methodologies used in a toxicology lab as well as the sources of
testing error that can lead to false positives, false negatives, and
unreliable conclusions of drug abuse or under use.
Covering a host of common therapeutic drugs as well as specific types
of interference in immunoassays used in drug testing, the book details
a number of possible testing scenarios and problems as well as solutions:
- False positive results in immunoassays for drugs in abuse testing
- Interferences in immunoassays used for monitoring anticonvulsants,
tricyclic antidepressants, and digoxin
- False positive alcohol tests using breath analyzers and automated analyzers
- When a toxicology report is negative in a suspected overdose
patient: the world of designer drugs
- Effects of drug-herb interactions on therapeutic drug monitoring
- Pharmacogenomics and the general principles of genetic analysis
- Approaches for eliminating interference/discordant specimen in
therapeutic drug monitoring and drugs in abuse testing
- What to do in case there is no readily available method for testing
Complete with easy-to-read tables and flowcharts, this book helps
toxicologists, clinical chemists, clinical pathologists, and forensic
pathologists develop accurate, unbiased drug monitoring and toxicology
reports. Health care professionals involved in patient care,
especially of critically ill patients, will find this guide
indispensable in making sure lab tests are reliable enough to provide
high-quality care. An indispensable handbook to the entire suite of
toxicology lab tests, as well as all the possible sources of testing
error, Resolving Erroneous Reports in Toxicology and Therapeutic
Drug Monitoring offers clear remedies for eliminating and
preventing testing error.
AMITAVA DASGUPTA is a Professor in the Department of Pathology
and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School at
Houston and the director of clinical chemistry, toxicology, and point
of care testing at the Memorial Hermann Hospital. He is the author of
Herbal Supplements and Pharmacogenomics in Clinical
Therapeutics, both published by Wiley.
