Development of a computerised alert system, ADEAS, to identify patients at risk for an adverse drug event.

INTRODUCTION: Adverse drug events (ADEs) are frequent and pose an important risk for patients treated with drugs. Fortunately, a substantial part of ADEs is preventable, and computerised physician order entry with a sophisticated clinical decision support system may be used to reach this goal. OBJECTIVE: To develop a new automated system that could improve the quality of medication surveillance. The system should focus on detecting patients at risk for an ADE by combining data from the hospital information system and computerised physician order entry (drug prescription data, drug-drug interaction alerts, clinical chemical laboratory parameters, demographic features), using clinical rules. METHODS: The clinical rules were formulated in a multidisciplinary team, based on seven risk categories. The new system was composed in a guideline-based decision support framework consisting of both a guideline development module and a decision support module. A total of 121 clinical rules were built into the system. Validation of the system and a proof of principle test were performed. RESULTS: The adverse drug event alerting system (ADEAS) was developed and validated successfully. The proof of principle test showed that ADEAS has potential clinical usefulness. ADEAS generated alerts and detected additional potential risk situations, which were not generated by the conventional medication surveillance. CONCLUSION: We developed a pharmacy decision support system ADEAS that focuses on the detection of situations prone to lead to an ADE and might help clinicians to take timely corrective interventions and thereby can prevent patient harm.

The tolerability and efficacy of low-dose simvastatin in statin-intolerant patients.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Statin intolerance is increasingly recognized as a therapy limiting factor in the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Since vulnerability to dose related adverse events differ between subjects treated with statins we hypothesized low-dose simvastatin would be tolerated and effective in statin-intolerant patients. METHOD: A single center open label prospective observational study was performed assessing tolerability and efficacy of low-dose simvastatin treatment in 35 statin-intolerant patients. Statin intolerance was defined as not being able to tolerate a registered dose statin due to myalgia-myopathy, myositis, or elevation of serum liver enzyme levels. These statin-intolerant patients were treated with simvastatin with an initial dose of 2.5mg every other day. The dose was titrated upwards if possible. Tolerability was defined as remaining on treatment. Efficacy was defined as change of LDL-cholesterol compared to baseline. RESULTS: The reached simvastatin dose ranged from 0.825 to 8.75mg/day with a mean dose of 4mg/day. Fifty-seven percent of the patients tolerated low-dose therapy and remained on treatment. Of these patients, 30% noted recurrent myalgia. Low-dose simvastatin significantly decreased mean(SD) LDL-cholesterol levels with 25.9(12.1)% (p<0.001). Eleven percent of the patients reached LDL-cholesterol target levels (<2.6mmol/l) in an intention to treat analysis and in 20% of patients that tolerated low-dose simvastatin. CONCLUSION: Low-dose simvastatin therapy is tolerated in a considerable proportion of statin-intolerant patients with significant lipid lowering efficacy. Low-dose statin therapy can be considered in multidrug regimens in statin-intolerant patients.

Intrathecal baclofen for dystonia of complex regional pain syndrome.

Dystonia in complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) responds poorly to treatment. Intrathecal baclofen (ITB) may improve this type of dystonia, but information on its efficacy and safety is limited. A single-blind, placebo-run-in, dose-escalation study was carried out in 42 CRPS patients to evaluate whether dystonia responds to ITB. Thirty-six of the 38 patients, who met the responder criteria received a pump for continuous ITB administration, and were followed up for 12 months to assess long-term efficacy and safety (open-label study). Primary outcome measures were global dystonia severity (both studies) and dystonia-related functional limitations (open-label study). The dose-escalation study showed a dose-effect of baclofen on dystonia severity in 31 patients in doses up to 450 microg/day. One patient did not respond to treatment in the dose-escalation study and three patients dropped out. Thirty-six patients entered the open-label study. Intention-to-treat analysis revealed a substantial improvement in patient and assessor-rated dystonia scores, pain, disability and quality-of-life (Qol) at 12 months. The response in the dose-escalation study did not predict the response to ITB in the open-label study. Eighty-nine adverse events occurred in 26 patients and were related to baclofen (n=19), pump/catheter system defects (n=52), or could not be specified (n=18). The pump was explanted in six patients during the follow-up phase. Dystonia, pain, disability and Qol all improved on ITB and remained efficacious over a period of one year. However, ITB is associated with a high complication rate in this patient group, and methods to improve patient selection and catheter-pump integrity are warranted.

Intravenous busulfan in children prior to stem cell transplantation: study of pharmacokinetics in association with early clinical outcome and toxicity.

We studied the pharmacokinetics of intravenous busulfan (Bu) in children in order to further optimize intravenous Bu dosing in relation to toxicity and survival. A total of 31 children undergoing Bu-based conditioning for allogeneic SCT were enrolled in a study. The starting dose was 1.0 mg/kg (age < 4 years) and 0.8 mg/kg (age > or =4 years), four doses per day during 4 days. Dose adjustment was allowed up to a maximum dose of 1.0 mg/kg per dose if the target area under the serum concentration-time curve (AUC) was not reached. Pharmacokinetic studies were performed after the first dose. Donor engraftment was established in 28 out of 31 patients. The average AUC after the first dose was the same in children < 4 years as in children > or =4 years. Mean clearance was higher in children < 4 years than in children > or =4 years. In 35% of all patients, total AUC was within the target AUC. The other children's AUCs were below the target range. No relationships were found between systemic exposure to Bu and toxicity or clinical outcome. We concluded that, in accordance with previous data, within the observed AUCs no clear relationship was observed between Bu AUC and outcome with respect to toxicity, engraftment and relapse.