Twelve years of circulatory extracorporeal life support at the University Medical Centre Utrecht.

Introduction: Circulatory extracorporeal life support (ECLS) has been performed at the University Medical Centre Utrecht for 12 years. During this time, case mix, indications, ECLS set-ups and outcomes seem to have substantially changed. We set out to describe these characteristics and their evolution over time.

Outcome of mechanical circulatory support at the University Medical Centre Utrecht.

Background: The prevalence of heart failure (HF) is increasing substantially and, despite improvements in medical therapy, HF still carries a poor prognosis. Mechanical circulatory support (MCS) by a continuous-flow left ventricular assist device (cf-LVAD) improves survival and quality of life in selected patients. This holds especially for the short-term outcome, but experience regarding long-term outcome is growing as the waiting time for heart transplantation is increasing due to the shortage of donor hearts.

Unbound Plasma, Total Plasma, and Whole-Blood Tacrolimus Pharmacokinetics Early After Thoracic Organ Transplantation.

Background And Objective: Therapeutic drug monitoring of tacrolimus whole-blood concentrations is standard care in thoracic organ transplantation. Nevertheless, toxicity may appear with alleged therapeutic concentrations possibly related to variability in unbound concentrations. However, pharmacokinetic data on unbound concentrations are not available.

High Variability of Whole-Blood Tacrolimus Pharmacokinetics Early After Thoracic Organ Transplantation.

Background And Objective: Oral tacrolimus is initiated perioperatively in heart and lung transplantation patients. There have been few studies on oral tacrolimus pharmacokinetics early post-transplantation, even though tacrolimus-related toxicity may occur early, potentially leading to morbidity and mortality. Therefore, we aimed to study the pharmacokinetics of oral tacrolimus in thoracic organ recipients during the first days after transplantation.