Comparison of hydroxychloroquine titers measured in frozen/thawed serum and whole blood obtained from lupus patients.
(2022) Lupus — Vol. 31, n° 6, p. 767-768 (2022)
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- To the Editor: Nonadherence to therapy in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has a major impact on disease progression and relapses, not to mention unnecessary therapeutic escalation. While unmasking nonadherence, through pill counts, refilling data, and electronic monitoring devices, remains challenging in many chronic diseases, measurements of whole blood (WB) hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) titers offer a specific option in SLE. Since HCQ is prescribed in virtually all SLE patients and has a long half-life, WB HCQ titers are only marginally influenced by the so-called white coat compliance effect corresponding to a short improvement of adherence the few days preceding an appointment. Severely nonadherent patients are therefore readily identified by a WB HCQ titer <200 ng/mL.In the same paper, the authors highlighted that a WB HCQ concentration of 1000 ng/mL had a 96% negative predictive value for disease exacerbation, suggesting a cut-off of 1000 ng/mL as a therapeutic target to achieve.[...]
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Baert, C., Nieuwland, S., Sokolova, T., Tamirou, F., & Houssiau, F. (2022). Comparison of hydroxychloroquine titers measured in frozen/thawed serum and whole blood obtained from lupus patients. Lupus, 31(6), 767-768. https://doi.org/10.1177/09612033221093506 (Original work published 2022)