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Graft-Versus-Host Desease

Long-term stability of a patient-convenient 1 mg/ml suspension of tacrolimus for accurate maintenance of stable therapeutic levels

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 37, pages 781–784 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Tacrolimus (Prograf®, FK506, Fujisawa Healthcare) is a widely used immunosuppressive agent that is used both for the prevention and treatment of solid organ transplant rejection as well as for the prevention and treatment of graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic blood and marrow transplant. Oral preparations of tacrolimus are commercially available in 0.5, 1 and 5 mg gelatin capsules. Previously, only a 0.5 mg/ml oral suspension has been demonstrated to be stable for use in pediatric patients. On our bone marrow transplant service, we found that using this concentration of tacrolimus led to confusion, with patients and their caregivers confusing milligrams and milliliters, thus increasing errors with this formulation. We postulated that a 1 mg/ml oral formulation of tacrolimus would decrease the potential for medication errors. Our findings support new stability information of approximately 4 months for an extemporaneous oral suspension of tacrolimus at a concentration of 1 mg/ml.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacy, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA

    A Elefante, K West & S Abel

  2. Department of Medicine, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA

    J Muindi, L Dunford, P Paplham, K Brown, T Hahn, S Padmanabhan, M Battiwalla & P L McCarthy Jr

Authors
  1. A Elefante
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  2. J Muindi
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  3. K West
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  4. L Dunford
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  5. S Abel
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  6. P Paplham
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  7. K Brown
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  8. T Hahn
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  9. S Padmanabhan
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  10. M Battiwalla
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  11. P L McCarthy Jr
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to P L McCarthy Jr.

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Elefante, A., Muindi, J., West, K. et al. Long-term stability of a patient-convenient 1 mg/ml suspension of tacrolimus for accurate maintenance of stable therapeutic levels. Bone Marrow Transplant 37, 781–784 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1705320

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1705320

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