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Tacrolimus dose requirements in African‐American and Caucasian kidney transplant recipients on mycophenolate and prednisone
Author(s) -
Beermann Kristi J.,
Ellis Matthew J.,
Sudan Debra L.,
Harris Matthew T.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
clinical transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.918
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1399-0012
pISSN - 0902-0063
DOI - 10.1111/ctr.12376
Subject(s) - medicine , tacrolimus , prednisone , mycophenolate , kidney transplant , mycophenolic acid , kidney transplantation , kidney , transplantation
Racial differences among kidney transplant recipients may impact the total daily tacrolimus dose required to achieve therapeutic tacrolimus concentrations. Previous studies suggest that African Americans require higher doses to achieve similar therapeutic drug concentrations compared with Caucasians. Data were collected on a total of 147 de novo kidney transplant recipients. Tacrolimus total daily dose ( TDD ) requirements (mg/kg/d) and tacrolimus concentrations were retrospectively reviewed at discharge and at days 30, 60, and 90 after transplant. TDD requirements in African‐American and Caucasian patients were 0.14 mg/kg/d and 0.11 mg/kg/d, respectively (p = 0.005), at day 30. TDD requirements at day of hospital discharge and days 60 and 90 following transplant were significantly higher in African‐American patients vs. Caucasian patients, with similar tacrolimus concentrations at all time points. This study suggests that when compared to Caucasians, African Americans require significantly higher TDD of tacrolimus to achieve similar tacrolimus concentrations. These findings provide transplant clinicians with a sense of certainty to more rapidly titrate daily tacrolimus doses in African‐American patients to achieve therapeutic concentrations.