Can a population pharmacokinetics model built on intermittent infusions accurately predict meropenem concentrations in children receiving continuous infusions?

We previously developed a population pharmacokinetic (PopPK) model using data from paediatric intensive care unit patients receiving meropenem as intermittent infusions. This study assessed the predictive performance of our model in estimating steady-state concentrations of meropenem in paediatric patients receiving continuous infusions. Retrospective data from 57 patients and 163 samples were used to measure bias and precision in both population and individual meropenem concentration predictions via median prediction error (MDPE) and median absolute prediction error (MDAPE), respectively. Error metrics for population predictions were 17.0% MDPE and 33.4% MDAPE, and for individual predictions were 4.4% MDPE and 19.6%, nearly all meeting the commonly used acceptable values of 20% for bias metrics and 30% for precision. In conclusion, this meropenem PopPK model can guide initial dosing strategies and be applied for model-informed precision dosing in critically ill paediatric patients receiving meropenem as continuous infusion.