ROUTINE THERAPEUTIC MONITORING OF LAMOTRIGINE IN EPILEPTIC PATIENTS USING A SIMPLE AND RAPID HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUE

We have developed a simple and rapid high performance liquid chromatog raphic technique to determine lamotrigine concentrations in epileptic patients and validated it using external quality control material. The method has been used to monitor the lamotrigine concentration in 70 s pecimens from 61 patients. Only 50% of the specimens had concentration s within the proposed target range of 1 mg/L to 4 mg/L, and there was no relationship between lamotrigine concentration and age, sex, other anti-epileptic treatments, or dose, although this could in part be exp lained by concomitant anti-epileptic therapy. We suggest that lamotrig ine should be monitored therapeutically in order to assess its efficac y and audit its use as an anti-epileptic treatment, especially with th e introduction of this relatively new drug as monotherapy.