Study reveals a better approach to heart failure treatment

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Researchers have found a new and safer way of administering digoxin to patients with heart failure.
Digoxin is a well established drug for the treatment of heart failure. The problem is that there is only a narrow margin between a therapeutic and a dangerous dose of the medication. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have been looking for a safer way of administering digoxin to patients so they get the benefit without being put at risk. They noted that the therapeutic range of digoxin has recently changed to become lower and narrower and this has been linked to reduced mortality.

But dosing methods have not changed to reflect the shift in therapeutic range. Therefore the researchers reviewed medical records of heart failure patients who had a steady state of digoxin concentration in their blood. They used this to derive an equation linking blood digoxin level, digoxin dose, kidney function and body weight. This new formula was compared to two older methods often used to estimate an initial dose of digoxin and found to be superior in its ability to choose the right dose more quickly. The new approach will help safeguard patients with heart failure who need to be on digoxin.

Source
University of Illinois at Chicago 15th December 2006