Clinical follow-up and monitoring of patients on PrEP
Optional assessments
Therapeutic drug monitoring
Initial demonstration projects in Australia conducted therapeutic drug monitoring as part of research protocols to evaluate medication adherence and HIV seroconversions among study participants. Their results revealed a high correlation between self-reports of tablet taking and blood concentrations of TD* and FTC, and high adherence to PrEP (over 90%) (15, 16). However, in Australia there are no clinical laboratories that quantify TD*/FTC concentrations in plasma, cells or urine for therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) in the setting of PrEP (17) and it is likely that therapeutic drug monitoring is likely to be used primarily for research including evaluations of people who acquire HIV infection while taking PrEP.