The main goal of this study is evaluation of the effects of tampson orane juice (citrus sinesis var. tampson) and tangerine juice (citrus reticulate var. unshiu) on cyclosporine pharmacokinetics in renal transplant reciepients. This study was done on ten renal transplant reciepients older than eighteen years old who were under maintenance treatment for at least four weeks. Mean age of patients was 40.3 + 14 year and mean cyclosporine dose prescribed was 3.4 + 0.5 mg/kg/d. The study was done in three steps with a minimum of one week apart. In each of these three steps each patient is given water, 250 cc of orange juice or tangerine juice with cyclosporine and cyclosporine level was measured at 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12 hours.
Results: Orange juice was not significantly different with water in its effects on area under the curve (AUC) (95% CI–769 to 734, P= 0.63) and maximum concentration (Cmax) (95% CI–264 to 74, P=0.32) and time to reach to maximum concentration of cyclosporine (Tmax) (95% CI–0.79 to 0.28, P=0.32) so as tangerine juice on AUC (95% CI–453 to 1166, P= 0.28), Cmax (95% CI–239 to 179, P=0.37), Tmax (95% CI –1 to 0.12, P=0.1) (table and figure 1). Discussion and conclusionWe conclude that at present we cannot limit orange or tangerine use in patients taking cyclosporine.