Effects of medication management in geriatric patients who have fallen: results of the EMMA mixed-methods study.

BACKGROUND: comprehensive medication management (CMM) can reduce medication-related risks of falling. However, knowledge about inter-individual treatment effects and patient-related barriers remains scarce. OBJECTIVE: to gain in-depth insights into how geriatric patients who have fallen view their medication-related risks of falling and to identify effects and barriers of a CMM in preventing falls. DESIGN: complementary mixed-methods pre-post study, based on an embedded quasi-experimental model. SETTING: geriatric fracture centre. METHODS: qualitative, semi-structured interviews framed the CMM intervention, including a follow-up period of 12 weeks. Interviews explored themes of falling, medication-related risks, post-discharge acceptability and sustainability of interventions using qualitative content analysis. Optimisation of pharmacotherapy was assessed via changes in the weighted and summated Medication Appropriateness Index (MAI) score, number of fall-risk-increasing drugs (FRID) and potentially inappropriate medications (PIM) according to the Fit fOR The Aged and PRISCUS lists using parametric testing. RESULTS: thirty community-dwelling patients aged ≥65 years, taking ≥5 drugs and admitted after an injurious fall were recruited. The MAI was significantly reduced, but number of FRID and PIM remained largely unchanged. Many patients were open to medication reduction/discontinuation, but expressed fear when it came to their personal medication. Psychosocial issues and pain increased the number of indications. Safe alternatives for FRID were frequently not available. Psychosocial burden of living alone, fear, lack of supportive care and insomnia increased after discharge. CONCLUSION: as patients' individual attitudes towards trauma and medication were not predictable, an individual and longitudinal CMM is required. A standardised approach is not helpful in this population.

Patient perspectives on, and effects of, medication management in geriatric fallers (the EMMA study): protocol for a mixed-methods pre-post study.

INTRODUCTION: Pharmacotherapy is critical in geriatric fallers owing to the vulnerability of this population. Comprehensive medication management can be an important strategy to reduce the medication-related risk of falling in this patient group. Patient-specific approaches and patient-related barriers to this intervention have rarely been explored among geriatric fallers. This study will focus on establishing a comprehensive medication management process to provide better insights into patients' individual perceptions regarding their fall-related medication as well as identifying organisational and medical-psychosocial effects and challenges of this intervention. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The study design is a complementary mixed-methods pre-post study which follows the approach of an embedded experimental model. Thirty fallers aged at least 65 years who were on five or more self-managed long-term drugs will be recruited from a geriatric fracture centre. The intervention consists of a five-step (recording, reviewing, discussion, communication, documentation) comprehensive medication management, which focuses on reducing the medication-related risk of falling. The intervention is framed using guided semi-structured pre-post interventional interviews, including a follow-up period of 12 weeks. These interviews will assess patients' perceptions of falls, medication-related risks and gauge the postdischarge acceptability and sustainability of the intervention. Outcomes of the intervention will be measured based on changes in the weighted and summated Medication Appropriateness Index score, number of fall-risk-increasing drugs and potentially inadequate medication according to the Fit fOR The Aged and PRISCUS lists. Qualitative and quantitative findings will be integrated to develop a comprehensive understanding of decision-making needs, the perspective of geriatric fallers and the effects of comprehensive medication management. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study protocol was approved by the local ethics committee of Salzburg County, Austria (ID: 1059/2021). Written informed consent will be obtained from all patients. Study findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals and conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: DRKS00026739.

Adverse Drug Event Monitoring with Clinical and Laboratory Data Using Arden Syntax.

In times of steadily increasing numbers of administered drugs, the detection of adverse drug events (ADEs) is an important aspect of improving patient safety. At present only about 1-13% of detected ADEs are reported. Raising the number of reported ADEs will result in greater and more efficient support of pharmacovigilance. Potential ADE's must be identified early. In the iMedication system, which is a rule-based application, triggers are used for computerized detection of possible ADEs. Creating a pilot system, we defined the relevant use cases hyperkalemia, hyponatremia, renal failure, and over-anticoagulation; knowledge bases were implemented in Arden Syntax for each use case. The objective of these knowledge bases is to interpret patient-specific clinical data and generate notifications based on a calculated ADE risk score, which may indicate possible ADEs. This will permit appropriate monitoring of potential ADE situations over time in the interest of patient care, quality assurance, and pharmacovigilance.

Detecting, Monitoring, and Reporting Possible Adverse Drug Events Using an Arden-Syntax-based Rule Engine.

The detection of adverse drug events (ADEs) is an important aspect of improving patient safety. The iMedication system employs predefined triggers associated with significant events in a patient's clinical data to automatically detect possible ADEs. We defined four clinically relevant conditions: hyperkalemia, hyponatremia, renal failure, and over-anticoagulation. These are some of the most relevant ADEs in internal medical and geriatric wards. For each patient, ADE risk scores for all four situations are calculated, compared against a threshold, and judged to be monitored, or reported. A ward-based cockpit view summarizes the results.

Gender and polypharmacotherapy in the elderly: a clinical challenge.

Polypharmacotherapy is a major concern in the elderly and especially in older women after the age of 80. It results from the intake of prescription and non-prescription drugs, being often a problem of evidence-based therapy. Besides the fact that women live longer than men and outnumber them, reasons for polypharmacy in women are diverse and include a different attitude towards intake of drugs between men and women, the propensity of women to rather see a physician and talk about their problems, the load of family responsibility as women are the main caregivers within a family, the influence of physician sex on patient care, the level of education, social deprivation and self-rated health. Women are more often prescribed potentially inappropriate medication and more often become victims of adverse drug reactions. This is not only due to the number and quality of drugs prescribed but also to differences in pharmacokinetics and - dynamics which make them more vulnerable to drug exposure. Thus, inappropriate prescribing contributes to hospitalization, poor quality of life, costs, compliance issues and poor outcomes. More preclinical and clinical studies with elderly patients and especially elderly women are needed to study the underlying mechanisms of the pharmacologic differences and obtain more insight into the difference in risk between men and women. Attention to prescribing of medications, consistent review of medication lists, and reevaluation of indications and outcomes of prescribing are essential to ensure that drugs are used appropriately in elderly women, polypharmacy is minimized and safety for patients is maximized.

Plasma asymmetric dimethylarginine and cardiovascular events in patients with acute decompensated heart failure.

This prospective study investigated whether plasma asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) concentrations are related to cardiovascular events in patients with acute heart failure. It has been reported that increased plasma ADMA concentrations are associated with adverse cardiovascular outcome in chronic heart failure. In 118 patients with acute decompensated heart failure and impaired left ventricular function, ADMA and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were assessed by high-performance liquid chromatography and by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. Venous blood was collected at admission and after 1 week, and clinical events were observed during follow-up. All patients (median age 73 years, 96 males) were followed up for a median of 10.7 months. A clinical endpoint (cardiac decompensation, major adverse cardiovascular event, or all-cause mortality) occurred in 66 patients. In 81 patients, changes (Delta) in ADMA or NT-proBNP between admission and a median of 7 days were available. ADMA, NT-proBNP at admission, and DeltaADMA or DeltaNT-proBNP were comparable in patients with and without a clinical endpoint. In contrast to ADMA, NT-proBNP concentrations above the median were associated with higher adjusted hazard ratio for occurrence of an endpoint (HR 2.1; 95% confidence interval 1.2-3.9; P = 0.013). An inverse relationship was observed between DeltaNT-proBNP and endpoints before (P = 0.010) and after (P = 0.015) adjustment for confounders. In patients with acute heart failure, ADMA did not detect patients at future cardiovascular risk.

Polypharmacy and inappropriate prescribing in elderly internal-medicine patients in Austria.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of polypharmacy and inappropriate drug use in elderly internal-medicine patients in one Austrian center and to define the impact of these and other identified predictors on the occurrence of adverse drug events. METHODS: All patients>or=75 years admitted to selected internal wards of a university hospital were included in a monocentric prospective cohort study over a period of three months. The pre-admission medication of the patients was analyzed with respect to appropriateness by a multidisciplinary team consisting of pharmacists and physicians trained in internal medicine. The medication was evaluated for the occurrence of adverse drug events. RESULTS: A total of 543 patients were analyzed (median age 82 years; 60.2% female). The mean number of drugs taken was 7.5+/-3.8, with women taking significantly more drugs than men (7.8 vs. 6.8, P=0.013). Overall, 58.4% of the patients fulfilled the given criteria for polypharmacy (>6 drugs). The following factors were associated with polypharmacy: female sex, need for nursing care, high number of discharge diagnoses and high Charlson comorbidity score. Unnecessary drugs were found prescribed in 36.3% of all patients, drugs to avoid (Beers criteria) in 30.1%, duplication in 7.6%, wrong dosage in 23.4% and possible drug-drug interactions in 65.8%. Adverse drug events were identified in 17.8% of the patients (97/543), among whom the adverse drug event was the reason for hospital admission in 56.7% of the cases and a drug-drug interaction was involved in 18.7%. Risk factors for adverse drug events were female sex, polymorbidity, renal dysfunction and inappropriate prescribing. CONCLUSION: Polypharmacy, inappropriate prescribing and adverse drug events were highly prevalent in a cohort of elderly internal-medicine patients in Austria. To improve drug safety in this high-risk population, appropriate prescribing might be more important than simply reducing the number of prescribed drugs.

Asymmetric dimethylarginine enhances cardiovascular risk prediction in patients with chronic heart failure.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether elevated asymmetrical dimethylorginine (ADMA) concentrations are associated with increased cardiovascular risk in chronic heart failure (HF) patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: 253 patients with symptomatic chronic HF and impaired left ventricular function (median age 70 years, 202 males) were followed for a median of 14.2 months (interquartile range 6.8 to 21.2). ADMA and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were assessed by high performance liquid chromatography and by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. Subjects with ADMA concentrations in the highest tertile had a significantly higher adjusted hazard ratio (HR; 2.00; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01 to 3.97) for occurrence of an end point (cardiac decompensation, major adverse cardiovascular events or all-cause mortality) compared with patients in the lowest tertile (P=0.046) during the first 6 months of follow-up. NT-proBNP also identified subjects at risk before adjustment for confounders at 6 and 12 months of follow-up. HR for patients with ADMA and NT-proBNP in the highest tertile was significantly increased (3.68, CI 1.67 to 8.14; at 6 months follow-up) compared with patients without ADMA and NT-proBNP in the highest tertile (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Elevated ADMA plasma concentrations are associated with adverse cardiovascular outcome in patients with chronic HF. Quantification of ADMA with NT-proBNP improves risk stratification in this cohort.