TY  -  JOUR
AU  -  Lo Surdo, Giuseppa
AU  -  Volpi, Elisabetta
AU  -  Tonazzini, Sara
AU  -  Alduini, Stefania
AU  -  Salvadori, Stefano
AU  -  Baroni, Monica
AU  -  Maffei, Stefano
AU  -  Biagini, Stefania
T1  -  Potential drug-drug interactions and polypharmacy<br>in patients with cardiovascular diseases:<br>the CARD-REC observational retrospective study
PY  -  2020
Y1  -  2020-07-01
DO  -  10.1721/3442.34308
JO  -  Giornale Italiano di Farmacia Clinica
JA  -  GIFAC
VL  -  34
IS  -  3
SP  -  106
EP  -  113
PB  -  Il Pensiero Scientifico Editore
SN  -  1120-3749
Y2  -  2026/04/15
UR  -  http://dx.doi.org/10.1721/3442.34308
N2  -  Summary. Background. Several studies observed that about 60% of patients present at least one Potential Drug-Drug Interaction (PDDI) at discharge. PDDIs are often predictable issues, therefore their timely review before hospital discharge, conducted by a team of pharmacists and physicians, would be desirable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the number of patients exposed to PDDIs at hospital discharge and describe their relationship with polypharmacy and gender. Methods. This observational retrospective study included patients with cardiovascular diseases discharged between December 2016 and December 2017. A pharmacist analyzed 16,479 prescriptions at discharge in order to detect any severe or moderate PDDI. Results. The analysis of the 16,479 prescriptions related to 2,114 patients included in our study revealed that among them 624 (23.0%) were exposed to at least one PDDI. A total of 1,108 PDDIs were recorded, 834 (75.3%) were classified as moderate and 274 (24.7%) as severe. We observed that as the number of drugs prescribed at discharge per patient increased, the risk of developing a PDDI increased significantly (p<0.001). Other parameters significantly associated with an increased risk of PDDI were age (p<0.01) and female sex (p<0.01). The most frequent severe interaction was the combination of some Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors and Furosemide (38.0%). Among the most frequent moderate interactions, we observed the association between Warfarin and Acetylsalicylic acid (10.2%). Conclusions. In this study a remarkable amount of patients with cardiovascular diseases has been discharged with at least one PDDI. The number of drugs, age and female sex were significantly associated with an increased risk to have at least one PDDI. The involvement of a clinical pharmacist, who highlights to the physician any PDDIs before discharge, could reduce the number of PDDIs per patient, resulting in a possible increase in the effectiveness of the prescribed drugs and an improvement in the safety profile.
ER  -