The US authorities are proposing name changes for two cardiac drugs after reports of 11 medication errors, including one death, because of confusion between the two drugs.
According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (1999;282:1409), revised names are being suggested for amrinone (a positive inotropic agent) and amiodarone (an antiarrhythmic). The United States Pharmacopoeia and the United States Adopted Names Council, which assign generic names to drugs, are said to be proposing changing amrinone to inamrinone (using the "in" prefix that appears on the brand name Inocor) and changing amiodarone to camiodarone (using the "c" prefix in the brand name Cordarone).
The fatality occurred when a 70-year-old patient received amiodarone infusion when amrinone was required.