PhD defence T.M.J. (Tim) Ewoldt

Below is a brief summary about the dissertation:

Intensive care (ICU) patients are different from other patients: they are more ill, receive more medication and intravenous fluids, and therapies may suddenly change at any time. As a result, concentrations of medication often fluctuate over time, and are different than in healthy volunteers or patients on standard nursing wards. With antibiotics, the effect of the medication is not readily apparent. Therefore, the consequence of subtherapeutic levels cannot be seen immediately. Previous studies have shown that beta-lactam antibiotics and ciprofloxacin are often at subtherapeutic levels or exposure, which can lead to exacerbation of infection or antibiotic resistance. Thus, a method to optimize the dose of these antibiotics is needed. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate dose optimization of beta-lactam antibiotics and ciprofloxacin through the use of population pharmacokinetic models and measurement of concentrations in ICU patients.