# Isoniazid urine spectrophotometry for prediction of serum pharmacokinetics in adults with TB

## TL;DR

This study explores using urine tests to predict blood levels of isoniazid, a TB drug, to help personalize dosing in areas with limited lab resources.

## Contribution

The study introduces urine spectrophotometry as a potential low-cost alternative to blood tests for monitoring isoniazid pharmacokinetics.

## Key findings

- Urine spectrophotometry showed good accuracy in predicting subtherapeutic serum isoniazid levels.
- Area under the ROC curves for urine values ranged from 0.84 to 0.85 across different collection intervals.
- The method could enable personalized dosing in high TB burden regions if validated further.

## Abstract

Isoniazid (INH) is an important drug in many TB regimens, and unfavorable treatment outcomes can be caused by suboptimal pharmacokinetics. Dose adjustment can be personalized by measuring peak serum concentrations; however, the process involves cold-chain preservation and laboratory techniques such as liquid chromatography (LC)/mass spectrometry (MS), which are unavailable in many high-burden settings. Urine spectrophotometry could provide a low-cost alternative with simple sampling and quantification methods.

We enrolled 56 adult patients on treatment for active TB. Serum was collected at 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 h for measurement of INH concentrations using validated LC-MS/MS methods. Urine was collected at 0–4, 4–8, and 8–24 h intervals, with INH concentrations measured using colorimetric methods.

The median peak serum concentration and total serum exposure over 24 h were 4.8 mg/L and 16.4 mg*hour/L, respectively. Area under the receiver operator characteristic curves for urine values predicting a subtherapeutic serum concentration (peak <3.0 mg/L) were as follows: 0–4 h interval (AUC 0.85, 95% CI 0.7–0.96), 0–8 h interval (AUC 0.85, 95% CI 0.71–0.96), and 0–24 h urine collection interval (AUC 0.84, 95% CI 0.68–0.96).

Urine spectrophotometry may improve feasibility of personalized dosing in high TB burden regions but requires further study of target attainment following dose adjustment based on a urine threshold.