Objective: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) drugs have been frequently implicated in adverse drug reaction (ADR)-related hospitalizations. Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are common preventable cause of ...ADRs, but the impact of DDIs in the CVD population has not been investigated. Hence, the primary aim of the study was to identify DDIs associated with ADRs in CVD patients at hospital admission. The second aim was to develop a simple tool to identify high-risk patients for DDI-related adverse events.
Methods: An observational study was conducted on the Cardiology Ward of University Clinical Hospital Center. Data were obtained from medical charts. A clinical panel identified DDIs implicated in ADRs, using LexiInteract database and Drug Interaction Probability Scale. Statistics were performed using PASW 22 (SPSS Inc.).
Results: DDIs contributed to hospital admission with a total prevalence of 9.69%. DDI-related ADRs affected mainly cardiac function (heart rate or rhythm, 41.07%); bleeding and effect on blood pressure were equally distributed (17.86%). Non-cardiovascular ADRs were found in 23.21% of DDIs. After admission, 73% of the identified DDIs led to changes in prescription. Prediction ability of calculated DDI adverse event probability scores was rated as good (AUC = 0.80, p < .001).
Conclusions: CVD patients are highly exposed to adverse DDIs; about one in ten patients hospitalized with CVD might have a DDI contributing to the hospitalization. Given the high prevalence of CVD, DDI-related harm might be a significant burden worldwide. Identification of patients with high DDI adverse event risk might ease the recognition of DDI-related harm and improve the use of electronic databases in clinical practice.
Background: COPD is a chronic condition requiring care from a multidisciplinary team in which pharmacists play an important role.
Aim: We aimed to evaluate the impact of structured pharmacist-patient ...counseling on patient’s knowledge, attitudes about medicines and the impact of COPD on patients’ health status.
Methods: A prospective study was conducted in ten community pharmacies. Patients were counseled using detailed approach after completing validated questionnaires. The patients returned to a pharmacy for a follow-up after three months. Four validated questionnaires have been used to assess different aspects of patient’s knowledge about the disease, their attitudes about medicines and the impact of disease on patients’ health status: COPD Assessment Test (CAT), Modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale (mMRC), Bristol COPD Knowledge Questionnaire (BCKQ), and The Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ).
Results: Pharmacists recruited 83 COPD patients, from which 73 patients attended a follow-up visit. Before pharmacist intervention, the CAT median score was 20. After counseling, the CAT score decreased to 18 (p<0.05). The highest improvement in patient’s knowledge was observed for inhaled bronchodilators (28.2%), vaccination (25.8%), oral steroids (24.4%), and smoking (24.2%). The median score for necessity increased, whereas the harm and concern median scores considerably decreased (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The results showed significant improvements in all aspects covered throughout pharmacist-patient counseling. Based on our results, proactive role of the pharmacist in the care of COPD patients may be beneficial to patients, to physicians and to healthcare: improving care, alleviating the strain on overloaded doctors with containing the costs.
Background: During the initiation of treatment of a chronic disease, patients may have varying interests, expectations, concerns, and reasons to stop treatment, influencing compliance with prescribed ...treatment. Thus, healthcare professionals are expected to integrate these needs into medicines management.
Objectives: To determine what information is important to patients; assess predictors of patients' interests, expectations, concerns, reasons to stop therapy; evaluate drug-related problems following initiation of therapy and summarize how pharmacists resolve them during patient-pharmacist counselling.
Methods: In 2014, a four-month study was performed in Serbian community pharmacies, as part of the Pharmaceutical Care Quality Indicators Project led by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & Healthcare. Seventy community pharmacists were asked to participate in the study. Pharmacists recruited adult patients who consented to participate in the study and who initiated treatment, lasting at least six months. Patients completed an open-ended questions form. After two-to-four weeks, a patient-pharmacist consultation was performed.
Results: Forty-four community pharmacists (response rate 62.9%) sent back the completed forms from 391 patients (response rate 67.1%). The total number of dispensed drugs was 403. In terms of drug safety, 29.4% of patients sought information, 32.5% expressed concerns, and 28.1% of patients cited it as a reason to discontinue treatment. During the first weeks of therapy, 18% of patients experienced practical problems, while 27.3% reported adverse drug reactions.
Conclusion: Safety issues are a major focus of patients' prescribed new medicines for long-term treatment.
High dose methotrexate (MTX) is used in therapy of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in pediatric patients. It acts as competitive inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase and ...consequently inhibits synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid. The bioavailability is dependent upon dose and route of administration. The drug is moderately bound to plasma proteins and distributes in body tissues and cells. After the administration in high doses, MTX partially undergoes hepatic and intracellular metabolism, but renal excretion of parent compound is the main route of elimination. Numerous factors may influence pharmacokinetics and concentration of drug, but primarily the effect of renal function on elimination is described. Delayed elimination might also be the consequence of drug interaction in renal tubules. Toxicity can arise with high MTX doses, especially in patients with delayed MTX elimination. Therapeutic drug monitoring is indicated due to safety reasons, in order to optimize leucovorin (folinic acid) administration as it reduces MTX toxicity. Considering the variability and the toxicity of high dose MTX therapy, special caution is required in pediatric patients.
Due to frequent clinical trial failures and consequently fewer new drug approvals, the need for improvement in drug development has, to a certain extent, been met using model-based drug development. ...Pharmacometrics is a part of pharmacology that quantifies drug behaviour, treatment response and disease progression based on different models (pharmacokinetic - PK, pharmacodynamic - PD, PK/PD models, etc.) and simulations. Regulatory bodies (European Medicines Agency, Food and Drug Administration) encourage the use of modelling and simulations to facilitate decision-making throughout all drug development phases. Moreover, the identification of factors that contribute to variability provides a basis for dose individualisation in routine clinical practice. This review summarises current knowledge regarding the application of pharmacometrics in drug development and clinical practice with emphasis on the population modelling approach.
Purpose
The aim of the present study was to develop a population pharmacokinetic model for methotrexate (MTX) during high-dose treatment (HDMTX) in pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic ...leukemia (ALL) and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) and to describe the influence of variability factors.
Methods
The study included 50 patients of both sexes (aged 1–18 years) who received 3 or 5 g/m
2
of HDMTX. A nonlinear mixed effect modeling approach was applied for data analysis. Parameter estimation was performed by first-order conditional estimation method with interaction (FOCEI), whereas stepwise covariate modeling was used to assess variability factors.
Results
The final model is a two-compartment model that incorporates the effect of body surface area and the influence of hemoglobin and serum creatinine on MTX clearance (CL). Population pharmacokinetic values for a typical subject were estimated at 5.75 L/h/m
2
for clearance (CL), 21.3 L/m
2
for volume of the central compartment (V1), 8.2 L/m
2
for volume of the peripheral compartment (V2), and 0.087 L/h/m
2
for intercompartmental clearance (Q). According to the final model, MTX CL decreases with increasing serum creatinine, whereas a positive effect was captured for hemoglobin. A difference of almost 32% in MTX CL was observed among patients’ hemoglobin values reported in the study.
Conclusion
The developed population pharmacokinetic model can contribute to the therapy optimization during HDMTX in pediatric patients with ALL and NHL. In addition to renal function and body weight, it describes the influence of hemoglobin on CL, allowing better understanding of its contribution to the disposition of HDMTX.
Antipsychotic medicines are widely used for the management of psychotic symptoms regardless of the underlying diagnosis. Most atypical antipsychotics undergo extensive metabolism prior to excretion. ...Various factors may influence their pharmacokinetics, particularly elimination, leading to highly variable drug concentrations between individual patients following the same dosing regimen. Population pharmacokinetic approach, based on nonlinear mixed effects modeling, is a useful tool to identify covariates explaining pharmacokinetic variability, as well as to characterize and distinguish unexplained residual and between-subject (interindividual) variability. In addition, this approach allows the use of both sparsely and intensively sampled data. In this paper, we reviewed the pharmacokinetic characteristics of clozapine, olanzapine and aripiprazole, focusing on a population modeling approach. In particular, models based on a nonlinear mixed effects approach performed by NONMEM
®
software in order to identify and quantify sources of pharmacokinetic variability are presented. Population models were identified through systematic searches of PubMed and sixteen studies were selected. Some of the factors identified that significantly contribute to variability in elimination among clozapine, olanzapine, and aripiprazole are demographic characteristics, body weight, genetic polymorphism, smoking and in some cases drug interactions. Scientific research based on pharmacometric modeling is useful to further characterize sources of variability and their combined effect.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Patients often seek advise from doctors and pharmacists about pain treatment. Opioid and non-opioid analgesics are the most commonly used drugs in the treatment of pain, but they have potential for ...pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic drug-drug interactions. The risk of central nervous system depression and respiratory depression is increased if opioid analgesics are used with anxiolytics, first-generation antihistamines, and antidepressants. Serotonin syndrome can occur if tramadol and fentanyl are used with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin and noradrenaline inhibitors, monoamino oxidase inhibitors, etc. Decreased elimination of opioid analgesics as a consequence of CYP2D6 and CYP3A4 isoenzyme inhibition can result in their increased efficacy but sedation and respiratory depression have also been reported. Caution is needed when non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are used concomitantly with other drugs that cause bleeding such as anticoagulants and SSRIs or drugs that decrease the elimination of NSAIDs by inhibition of CYP2C9. NSAIDs can antagonize the effect of antihypertensives, and interaction with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors may result in renal failure. In comparison with opioid analgesics and NSAIDs, paracetamol has the lowest potential for clinically significant interactions. The prophylactic administration of paracetamol after vaccination should be avoided and patients should be advised not to use alcohol during therapy.
We aimed to characterize newer antiseizure medications (ASMs)-induced hepatotoxicity in children and identify signals of disproportionate reporting of hepatotoxicity-related adverse drug events ...(ADEs).
Case reports reported to VigiBase were accessed using Empirica™ Signal software. To summarize characteristics of the retrieved cases, descriptive statistics were used. A disproportionality analysis was conducted using the Multi-item Gamma Poisson Shrinker algorithm, which calculates Empirical Bayesian Geometric Mean value and its lower and upper 95% confidence limits (EB05 and EB95, respectively). EB05 > 2,
> 0 was considered a signal.
Based on 870 analyzed cases, a higher proportion of cases was reported in girls than in boys and in patients aged 2-11 years than in other age groups. Most cases were serious. In 25 cases, hepatotoxicity resulted in death. A high proportion of patients (
= 275, 31.61%) experienced hypersensitivity reactions, mostly due to lamotrigine. The disproportionality analysis yielded 17 signals concerning felbamate, lamotrigine, levetiracetam, oxcarbazepine, stiripentol, and topiramate. Four signals were for severe liver injury and concerned felbamate, lamotrigine, levetiracetam, and topiramate. Gender-biased reporting frequency was detected for four ASM-ADE combinations.
Our results should serve to raise clinicians' awareness about the potential association between several newer ASMs and drug-induced liver injury in children.
The aim of the study was to determine the rate of Potentially Inappropriate Medicines (PIM) and Potential Prescription Omissions (PPO) according to Screening Tool of Older Person's potentially ...inappropriate Prescriptions/Screening Tool to Alert doctors to the Right Treatment (STOPP/START) criteria.
A cross-sectional survey in community pharmacy.
A prospective cross-sectional study was performed, during March-May 2012, in five community pharmacies. Patients aged ≥65 years, who collected one or more prescribed medications, were asked to participate in the study, and an interview was scheduled. Patients were asked to provide their complete medical and biochemical record from their general practitioner.
509 patients, mean age 74.8±6.5 years, 57.4% female, participated in the study. 164 PIM were identified in 139 patients (27.3%). The most common were: long-term use of long-acting benzodiazepines (20.7%), use of non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) in patients with moderate-severe hypertension (20.1%), use of theophylline as monotherapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, 15.9%) and use of aspirin without appropriate indication (15.2%). Patients with more than four prescpritions had a higher risk for PIM (OR 2.85, 95% CI 1.97-4.14, p<0.001). There were 439 PPO, identified in 257, (50.5%) patients. Predictors for PPO were older age, presence of diabetes, myocardial infarction, osteoporosis, stroke, COPD and/or angina pectoris.
STOPP/START criteria may be useful in identifying inappropriate prescribing and improving the current prescribing practices. Pharmacists should focus more on patients with more than four medications and/or patients with gout or pain accompanied with arterial hypertension because those patient may be at higher risk of PIM. Additionlly, patients older than 74 years with diabetes, osteoporosis, myocardial infarction, stroke, angina pectoris and/or COPD may have an increased risk of PPO.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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