ASN's Mission

To create a world without kidney diseases, the ASN Alliance for Kidney Health elevates care by educating and informing, driving breakthroughs and innovation, and advocating for policies that create transformative changes in kidney medicine throughout the world.

learn more

Contact ASN

1401 H St, NW, Ste 900, Washington, DC 20005

email@asn-online.org

202-640-4660

The Latest on X

Kidney Week

Please note that you are viewing an archived section from 2019 and some content may be unavailable. To unlock all content for 2019, please visit the archives.

Abstract: FR-PO1187

Weight-Based Dosing for Tacrolimus: A Single-Center Experience

Session Information

Category: Transplantation

  • 1902 Transplantation: Clinical

Authors

  • Katz-Greenberg, Goni, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
  • Burke, Peter, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
  • Singh, Pooja, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Background

Tacrolimus (FK) remains the mainstay of maintenance immunosuppression for kidney transplant (KT) recipients. A therapeutic trough (TT) is maintained by dose adjustments within an acceptable narrow range. Low TTs are associated with acute rejection (AR) episodes. In order to address a wide variability in the initial prescribed dose, as well as issues with delayed time to TT, we implemented weight-based dosing (WBD) for FK in our center. Herein we present the results following this change.

Methods

For WBD, patients received FK at 0.1mg/kg/day on first post operation day (POD), with dose adjustments thereafter per standard protocol, for target TTs of 8-11ng/mL. Patients who underwent KT in the 6 months pre and post implementation of WBD were included in the analysis. We looked at baseline demographics, as well as donor and recipient characteristics. Rates of AR (per Banff 2017 criteria) at 90 days, serum creatinine (SCr) at 30 days, time to TT, and delayed graft function (DGF) were reviewed. Multi-organ txps, except kidney-pancreas were excluded.

Results

Following KT, 70 patients in the WBD cohort, and 68 patients in the cohort prior to the implementation [non WBD (nWBD)] were included. AR was seen in 7/65 of the WBD group, and in 3/56 of the nWBD group; p=0.281. On POD 3, the median FK TT was 8.5ng/mL in the WBD, versus 5.9ng/mL in the nWBD (figure 1). To avoid confounding, 38 live donor KT recipients were excluded from DGF analysis. In patients with deceased donor KT (DDKT), DGF rate was significantly higher in nWBD versus WBD group (19/41 [46.3%] vs 9/42 [21.4%], respectively; p<0.05). No difference in median SCr was noted.

Conclusion

FK levels are expected to reach a steady state after 3-4 doses. The WBD group achieved TTs earlier than the nWBD group. Significantly higher DGF rate was noted in the nWBD group, with similar rates of rejection in both groups. Further large-scale studies are needed to examine the role of WBD on DGF, AR and its effect on graft function, as well as costs in the immediate post txp period.

Figure 1