The blood concentration profiles of most antimalarial drugs vary considerably between patients. The interpretation of antimalarial drug trials evaluating efficacy and effectiveness would be improved considerably if the exposure of the infecting parasite population to the antimalarial drug treatment could be measured. Artemisinin combination treatments are now recommended as first-line drugs for the treatment of falciparum malaria. Measurement of the blood, serum or plasma  concentration of the slowly eliminated partner antimalarial drug on day 7 of follow-up is simpler and might be a better determinant of therapeutic response than the area under the concentration–time curve. Measurement of the day-7 drug level should be considered as a routine part of antimalarial drug trials.


Antimalarial efficacy assessments
Assessing responses to combination treatments
Antimalarial pharmacodynamics
Antimalarial pharmacokinetics
Melding pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics
Sampling methods for monitoring in vivo responses to antimalarial drugs