No abstract

The pharmacokinetic parameters obtained in this study would be useful to predict the 5-fluorouracil plasma concentrations following other schedules of administration of 5-fluorouracil and to study the possible pharmacokinetic interactions between 5-fluorouracil and other drugs.

This study provides useful information to clinicians to better estimate the hematopoietic toxicity of carboplatin and thus choose more rationally carboplatin target AUCs as a function of pretreatment or concomitantly administered chemotherapies. For example, an AUC of 5 mg/mL · min is associated with a risk of grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia of 2% in combination with paclitaxel versus 38% with gemcitabine in a non-pretreated patient.

Aims Both rituximab and plasmapheresis can be associated in the treatment of immune‐mediated kidney diseases. The real impact of plasmapheresis on rituximab pharmacokinetics is unknown. The aim of this study was to compare rituximab pharmacokinetics between patients requiring plasmapheresis and others without plasmapheresis. Methods The study included 20 patients receiving one or several infusions of rituximab. In 10 patients, plasmapheresis sessions were also performed (between two and six sessions per patient). Rituximab concentrations were measured in blood samples in all patients and in discarded plasma obtained by plasmapheresis using an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay method. Data were analysed according to a population pharmacokinetic approach. Results The mean percentage of rituximab removed during the first plasmapheresis session ranged between 47 and 54% when plasmapheresis was performed between 24 and 72 h after rituximab infusion. Rituximab pharmacokinetics was adequately described by a two‐compartment model with first‐order elimination. Plasmapheresis had a significant impact on rituximab pharmacokinetics, with an increase of rituximab clearance by a factor of 261 (95% confidence interval 146–376), i.e. from 6.64 to 1733 ml h−1. Plasmapheresis performed 24 h after rituximab infusion decreased the rituximab area under the curve by 26%. Conclusions Plasmapheresis removed an important amount of rituximab when performed less than 3 days after infusion. The removal of rituximab led to a significant decrease of the area under the curve. This pharmacokinetic observation should be taken into account for rituximab dosing, e.g. an additional third rituximab infusion may be recommended when three plasmapheresis sessions are performed after the first rituximab infusion.

Dexamethasone may be used as a probe to predict docetaxel clearances, hence reducing interindividual variability.

International audienceData exploitation, acquired by medium-frequency omnidirectional multibeam sonar, enables original studies in fisheries research but is seldom used despite the fact that such equipment is found on most fishing vessels and a number of research vessels. This is the only system for real-time monitoring of fish schools within a horizontal omnidirectional plane about a vessel or a buoy. Between 1996 and 2001, we used two standard omnidirectional sonars and developed new methodologies for exploiting their specific acoustic data according to two main sampling schemes: 'prospecting', including fishing and searching operations, and 'drifting', as with an instrumental buoy system or aboard a stationary vessel. We present a complete method for continuous data acquisition from aboard a research vessel or commercial boat, with automated data extraction by picture analysis and a data processing method. Two cases of data analysis are considered: the first on a school-by-school basis, the 'single school' mode; the second taking into account all fish schools detected within the sonar sampling volume, the 'cluster' mode. Elementary sonar information is divided into five categories that comprise 24 survey and sonar parameters and 55 school, cluster and fisher behaviour descriptors. We review the applications of these categories and discuss perspectives for their use in fisheries science. If the sonar system enables the evaluation of the effects of vessel avoidance on fish school biomass assessment, no accurate abundance estimate can be provided by a simple sonar echo-integration process. Omnidirectional sonar data can be used to analyse collectively the fish schools' swimming speed, kinematics in terms of diffusion and migration, aggregative dynamics as school splitting and merging indexes, spatial characteristics of clusters such as school density, 2D structure and fisher behaviour. The prospect of integrating such data into a fish school database, including multifrequency echo-sounder and lateral multibeam (3D) sonar data combined with a species recognition method, will enable a complete view of fish school behaviour and consequently the adoption of accurate fisheries management methods

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects a substantial proportion of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Patients infected with both HCV and HIV respond poorly to anti-HCV treatment with pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin. But few data are available on the influence of ribavirin and interferon concentrations on treatment outcome for these patients. This study investigated the relationship between the serum pegylated interferon and ribavirin concentrations 3 and 6 months after treatment initiation, and treatment outcome in 35 HCV-HIV coinfected patients. The pegylated interferon and ribavirin concentrations at months 3 and 6 were similar. The pegylated interferon concentrations at 3 months in responders and nonresponders were similar. However, responders tended to have higher ribavirin concentrations (2,322 ng/ml) than nonresponders (1,833 ng/ml; P = 0.08). Responders infected with HCV genotype 1 or 4 had higher ribavirin concentrations (2,672 ng/ml) than did similarly infected nonresponders (1,758 ng/ml; P = 0.04). ROC curve analysis showed that a ribavirin concentration of 2,300 ng/ml was the best threshold for predicting a nonresponse (ROC area = 0.80 +/- 0.12). Thus ribavirin concentrations influence treatment outcome in HIV patients infected with HCV genotype 1 or 4. Monitoring ribavirin concentrations could help adapt ribavirin concentrations and improve the sustained virological response.

The inter-individual variability was larger for plasma pharmacokinetic parameters than that for peritoneal parameters. However, the percentage of oxaliplatin dose absorbed during a 30-min hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy may vary from 40 to 68%. The present pharmacokinetic model will be useful to implement pharmacokinetic evaluation of further clinical trials of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy based on platinum compounds' administration.