Detection and analysis of potential drug-drug interactions among patients admitted to the cardiac care unit in a tertiary care hospital.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to estimate how prevalent potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) were in patients with cardiovascular diseases who were hospitalized for more than 24 hours, and to determine the risk factors associated with these pDDIs.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A prospective observational study was conducted on patients admitted to the cardiac care unit in a tertiary care hospital. We included two hundred medical records of cardiovascular disease patients who were prescribed more than one drug. These medical records were analyzed for pDDIs using the Micromedex drug interaction checker database. Data were analyzed using Descriptive statistics. Chi-square test and the Pearson correlation coefficient were applied.

RESULTS

PDDIs were prevalent in 95% of the analyzed medical records, with at least one detected pDDI per record. Within the 200 medical records, 430 potentially interacting drug pairs were identified, with the majority resulting in moderate and major interactions. Aspirin/clopidogrel (111), furosemide/aspirin (89), enoxaparin/clopidogrel (89) and Lisinopril/aspirin (60) were the most common interacting pairs. Whereas, aspirin, heparin, clopidogrel, furosemide, ranitidine and Lisinopril were the most frequently implicated drugs in DDIs.

CONCLUSIONS

PDDIs were common among hospitalized cardiovascular patients. PDDIs were associated with age and number of drugs prescribed. The routine integration of an online drug interactions screening tool may improve the ability of pharmacists to identify cardiac patients at higher risk of potential drug interactions and conduct appropriate interventions thereafter.