Background: The management of cyclosporine therapy in pediatric kidney-transplant recipients is largely based on single center's experience rather than on a univocal pharmacokinetic approach based on therapeutic drug monitoring. A prospective multicenter trial was designed to address the question whether C2 blood level monitoring of cyclosporine microemulsion therapy is feasible in the pediatric setting.
Methods: Sixty-four pediatric kidney-transplant recipients receiving a triple immunosuppressive regimen based on cyclosporine microemulsion had their cyclosporine dose adjusted to the same protocol-defined C2 targets from the time of the transplant until 2 years posttransplant. The interim analyses after 1 year of enrollment is presented in this study.
Results: One-year patient and graft survival were 100% and 94.8%, respectively. One-year rejection rate was 15%. C2 management of cyclosporine did not affect graft function: 1-year serum creatinine and glomerular filtration rate were 1.3+/-1 mg/mL and 71.2+/-20 mL/min/1.73 m2, respectively. C2 was the best single-point predictor of the area under the concentration curve throughout the entire follow-up, with a mean coefficient of correlation of 0.97+/-0.01.
Conclusions: C2 management of cyclosporine microemulsion therapy is effective and safe in pediatric kidney-transplant recipients given a combined immunosuppressive treatment.