Application of microdialysis in clinical pharmacology

Microdialysis has been developed during the last 25 years by several authors primarily to study brain function and changes in levels of endogenous compounds such as neurotransmitters or metabolites in different laboratory animals. However, in the last ten years microdialysis sampling has been introduced as a versatile technique in the clinical setting. Although, microdialysis sampling has been extensively used for metabolic monitoring in patients, it was also employed for the study of distribution of different therapeutic agents especially anti-infective and antineoplasic drugs. In addition, clinical effect of drugs in patients could be also determined by means of microdialysis. So, this article reviewed the vast applications of the microdialysis technique for the study of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of drugs in the clinical setting.