Artificial intelligence (AI) based tools offer new opportunities for pharmacovigilance (PV) activities. Nevertheless, their contribution to PV needs to be tailored to preserve and strengthen medical ...and pharmacological expertise in drug safety.
This work aims to describe PV tasks in which the contribution of AI and intelligent automation (IA) tools is required, in the context of a continuous increase of spontaneous reporting cases and regulatory tasks. A narrative review with expert selection of pertinent references was performed through Medline. Two areas were covered, management of spontaneous reporting cases and signal detection.
The use of AI and IA tools will assist a large spectrum of PV activities, both in public and private PV systems, in particular for tasks of low added value (e.g. initial quality check, verification of essential regulatory information, search for duplicates). Testing, validating, and integrating these tools in the PV routine are the actual challenges for modern PV systems, to guarantee high-quality standards in terms of case management and signal detection.
While antipsychotic-induced weight gain has been widely described in adults, it has yet to be better characterized in children and adolescents.
The aim of this study was to assess ...antipsychotic-induced weight-gain reporting in children and adolescents as compared to adults, and according to the type of antipsychotic.
The study is an observational, case-non-case study using individual case safety reports from the WHO global pharmacovigilance database VigiBase
from 1 January 2000 to 2 June 2021. Disproportionality in antipsychotic-related weight-gain reporting in children and adolescents compared to adults was evaluated based on reporting odds ratios (RORs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) through multivariate logistic regression modeling. Analysis was adjusted for sex, region of reporting, year of notification, reporter qualification, concomitant use of antidepressants, and use of more than one antipsychotic.
Among 282,224 antipsychotic-related spontaneous reports included in this analysis, we identified 16,881 (6.0%) weight-gain cases. Disproportionality in weight-gain reporting was found in children (adjusted ROR (aROR) 3.6; 95% CI 3.3-3.8) and in adolescents (aROR 2.3; 95% CI 2.2-2.4) compared to adults. Use of risperidone was associated with the highest increase in weight-gain reporting in children (aROR 4.9; 95% CI 3.9-6.1) and adolescents (aROR 3.6; 95% CI 3.1-4.1).
Compared to adults, weight-gain reporting with antipsychotics was disproportionally higher in the pediatric population, especially in children under 12 years of age. Considering the impact of weight gain on global morbidity and mortality, physicians should closely monitor weight gain in young patients, especially children on risperidone.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
IgA vasculitis (IgAV) is an immune complex small-vessel vasculitis. Drug-induced IgAV cases were rarely reported in the literature. Drug causality assessment is challenging as many other etiological ...factors can be involved. We performed a pharmacovigilance study to identify the main drugs reported to induce IgAV.
We used the French pharmacovigilance database (FPVD) and the WHO global individual case safety reports database (VigiBase) to retrieve IgAV cases. Cases from the FPVD were reviewed by two investigators using predefined criteria. Disproportionality analyses (case – non-case approach) were conducted in VigiBase to identify drugs significantly associated with IgAV reporting.
Of the 467 IgAV cases retrieved from the FPVD, 115 (47 children and 68 adults) have been assessed as definite or probable, reported with 178 suspected drugs. Overall IgAV cases were mainly male (58%), with a median age of 33.5 (8.0–63.3) years. No death was reported. Besides, we identified 1558 possible IgAV cases in VigiBase. Among them, 40 were associated with a disproportionality in IgAV reporting. Drugs were mainly vaccines, antibiotics and TNF-α blockers, these finding being consistent in both databases. IgAV reporting with TNF-α blockers was significantly associated with their use in inflammatory bowel diseases, psoriasis or ankylosing spondylitis compared to other indications.
Our systematic study enables the identification of culprit drugs in drug-induced IgAV. These results strengthen the immune pathophysiology of IgAV and the role of underlying disease. The list of suspected drugs may be useful for physicians to manage patients with IgAV and consider appropriate drug discontinuation.
What is already known about this subject?
IgA vasculitis has multifactorial etiology. To date, possible culprit drugs have been reported only in case reports.
What does this study add?
Using a dual pharmacovigilance-based approach, we identified drugs associated with the occurrence of IgA vasculitis, such as all types of vaccines, major antibiotics and immunomodulatory agents, mainly TNF-α blockers.
How might this impact on clinical practice or future developments?
Physicians should be aware of drug-induced IgA vasculitis and we provide evidence on the most frequent implicated drugs.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
•About 40% of women with systemic vasculitis were treated by immunosuppressive drugs during pregnancy.•The number of patients treated with non-recommended immunosuppressant during pregnancy gradually ...decreased before pregnancy.•Proportion of systemic vasculitis flare did not increase significantly during pregnancy.
Systemic vasculitis (SV) rarely affects women of childbearing age and only small series have been reported to date in pregnant patients. The discovery of an unplanned pregnancy can be an urgent cause for modifying treatments. This study aimed to describe immunosuppressive drugs use before, during and after pregnancy in women with SV.
We conducted a cohort study using the French nationwide claims database. We included all women with SV being pregnant between 2013 and 2018. Exposure of interest was defined as exposure to oral systemic or injectable immunosuppressive drug identified using out-hospital reimbursement data and in-hospital reimbursement for expensive drugs.
Of 3,246,454 pregnancies, 649 pregnancies were observed in 606 women with SV. Immunosuppressant and glucocorticoids use decreased before pregnancy and then increased after pregnancy (48.4%, 40.7%, 50.4%, respectively before, during, after). Prevalence of glucocorticoids use was broadly stable during pregnancy from 27.9% to 27.6% and 23.7% in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimesters, respectively, with a daily dose of about 5 mg. The number of patients treated with non-recommended immunosuppressant during pregnancy gradually decreased before pregnancy and then increased after delivery, whereas proportion of systemic vasculitis flare, estimated from the glucocorticoids daily dose, did not increase significantly during pregnancy.
Immunosuppressants and glucocorticoids use decreased before pregnancy and remained stable throughout, suggesting a vasculitis control during this period. Our findings support the importance of pre-conceptional consultations to review medications, and switch not-recommended and teratogenic medications to drugs considered being safe during pregnancy.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Aims
In the last French study in 2007, the incidence of hospital admissions (HAs) related to adverse drug reactions (ADRs) was 3.6%. The objective was to assess the current ADR‐HA incidence in France ...and to describe both its characteristics and preventability.
Methods
A prospective multicentre study was conducted among randomly selected French public hospital medical wards (April–July 2018). Patients admitted during a week period were included. ADR‐HA cases were collected by the French Regional Pharmacovigilance Centres network. An independent committee validated potential cases and ADR preventability.
Results
ADR‐HA incidence was 8.5% (95% confidence interval CI: 7.6–9.4%), increasing with age (3.3% 95%CI: 1.8–5.5% ≤16 y vs. 10.6% 95%CI: 9.3–12.0% ≥65 y). The most common ADRs were haemorrhagic events (8.8%), haematological disorders (6.5%), acute renal failure (6.3%), fluid and electrolyte disorders (6.0%), and falls (5.2%). New drugs were involved: targeted therapies (22.8% of antineoplastics), direct oral anticoagulants (29.6% of antithrombotics) and incretin‐based drugs (20.0% of antidiabetics). ADRs were preventable in 16.1% of cases because the drugs involved had not been used in accordance with monographies, package leaflets or other therapeutic guidelines. The main situations of noncompliance addressed either dose or duration of use (27.9%), warning (23.2%), use precaution (18.6%) and inappropriate self‐medication or misuse by patients (11.6%).
Conclusion
In France, ADR‐HA incidence dramatically increased over the last decade. A significant proportion was related to new pharmacological classes and considered as preventable. These findings should lead to in‐depth thought on preventive actions on at‐risk drug classes.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Myocarditis and pericarditis may constitute adverse reactions of mRNA coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) vaccines. This study aimed to document these reactions and to assess the association with ...patient sex and age. This is as an observational retrospective study using a case–non‐case design (also called disproportionality study) on inflammatory heart reactions reported with mRNA COVID‐19 vaccines within the World Health Organization (WHO) global safety database (VigiBase), up to June 30, 2021. Results are expressed using reporting odds ratios (RORs) and their 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Of 716,576 reports related to mRNA COVID‐19 vaccines, 2,277 were cases of inflammatory heart reactions, including 1241 (55%) myocarditis and 851 (37%) pericarditis. The main age group was 18–29 years (704, 31%), and mostly male patients (1,555, 68%). Pericarditis onset was delayed compared with myocarditis with a median time to onset of 8 (3–21) vs. 3 (2–6) days, respectively (P = 0.001). Regarding myocarditis, an important disproportionate reporting was observed in adolescents (ROR, 22.3, 95% CI 19.2–25.9) and in 18–29 years old (ROR, 6.6, 95% CI 5.9–7.5) compared with older patients, as well as in male patients (ROR, 9.4, 95% CI 8.3–10.6). Reporting rate of myocarditis was increased in young adults and adolescents. Inflammatory heart reactions may rarely occur shortly following mRNA COVID‐19 vaccination. Although an important disproportionate reporting of myocarditis was observed among adolescents and young adults, particularly in male patients, reporting rates support a very rare risk, that does not seem to compromise the largely positive benefit‐risk balance of these vaccines. Furthermore, this study confirmed the value of disproportionality analyses for estimation of relative risks among subgroups of patients.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
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