Cyclosporine Through and 2 Hour Post Dose Monitoring and Its Contributing Factors Among Pediatric Kidney Recipients

Background: cyclosporine (csa) is one of the most frequently used anti-rejection drugs in organ transplant. pediatric patients have different csa pharmacokinetics than adults.objectives: the aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the csa blood levels monitoring in pediatric renal transplant recipients in a single-center setting, after the first year of transplantation.patients and methods: we reviewed 236 pediatric kidney recipients (aged ≤ 18) years old who received a kidney for the first time with at least a minimum time of 1 year after transplantation between april 2008 and june 2010. mean follow-up was at least 6 months.results: the male to female ratio was 1.3/1.0. mean age of patients’ were 14 ± 3 years. a negative relation was found between csa levels (c0 and c2) with serum creatinine (r = -0.1, p = 0.001 and r = -0.1, p = 0.01, respectively). a significant correlation was found between c0 level and liver enzymes. although increase in the donor age had a negative effect on c0 as well as c2 levels, significant value was only shown in c2 level (r = -0.5, p = 0.1 vs. r = -0.15, p = 0.000). c0 level was higher in male than female gender (p = 0.000) as well as in deceased donor source (p = 0.000). serum creatinine level, serum alkaline phosphatase, liver enzymes affected c0 blood level; whereas, donor age and serum creatinine were the confounding variables on c2 level.conclusions: we conclude that c0 was affected by serum creatinine level, serum alkaline phosphates, liver enzymes; whereas, c2 level was influenced by donor age and serum creatinine.