GI drugs and antipsychotics can triple risk of cardiac death
Use of non-cardiac drugs that prolong the QTc interval is associated with an almost three-fold increased risk of sudden cardiac death, according to Dutch researchers.
The researchers identified 775 cases of sudden death and 6,297 matched
controls and determined whether each patient had been exposed to non-cardiac
QTc-prolonging drugs.
The researchers suggest that 320 cases of sudden cardiac death per year
in the Netherlands can be attributed to the use of these drugs. They
note that the risk is higher in those who have started taking the drug
within the previous 90 days and in those on higher daily doses of antipsychotics
or
gastrointestinal drugs. Their results also show that domperidone and
haloperidol in particular are associated with a higher risk of sudden
cardiac death.
Bruno Stricker, from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam and one
of the study authors, commented that it is important to keep the increased
risk in perspective. He said that the normal annual incidence of sudden
cardiac death is one to two deaths a year per 1,000 of the population
in the western world and that this risk rises to around three per 1,000
per year in those taking drugs that prolong the QTc interval (published
online on 11 May in the European
Heart Journal). |
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