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Objective: To examine the effect of angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) treatment on serum potassium level and hyperkalaemia risk in a clinical setting with inpatients and outpatients using calcium channel blockers (CCBs) as a reference standard., Methods: The increased risk of hyperkalaemia associated with ARB treatment is known, however only a few studies have used an active comparator to examine this risk. In this retrospective study at a 320-bed general hospital in Japan, the hospital information system was used to identify patients with at least one prescription for an ARB (819 patients) or a CCB (1015 patients) who were naive to these drugs before study initiation. Serum potassium levels before and after ARB treatment were compared. Additionally, the unadjusted and adjusted hazard ratios for the risk of hyperkalaemia in the ARB and CCB users were estimated., Results: The serum potassium level was higher in patients receiving ARB treatment (0.05 mEq/L, p=0.02) compared with those on CCB treatment. However, there was no significant association between ARB use and hyperkalaemia (adjusted HR 0.91, 95% CI 0.42 to 1.99, p=0.82)., Conclusion: The increase in serum potassium level after ARB initiation makes it necessary to monitor serum potassium levels continuously during ARB treatment; however, the risk of hyperkalaemia appeared to be similar for ARB and CCB treatments., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© European Association of Hospital Pharmacists 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. Published by BMJ.)

Objective: Edoxaban is sometimes given at reduced doses when used concomitantly with physical prophylaxis to prevent symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE) after total hip arthroplasty (THA). This study aimed to evaluate the safety of reduced doses of edoxaban administered independent of the dose-reduction criteria and their effects on D-dimer levels after THA in Japanese patients., Materials and Methods: This study enrolled 22 patients who received edoxaban 30 mg/day and 45 patients who received edoxaban 15 mg/day with dose adjustment as a standard-dose group, and 110 patients who received edoxaban 15 mg/day without dose adjustment as a low-dose group. The incidence of bleeding events was then compared between groups with patients wearing elastic stockings. Multivariate regression analysis was also performed to examine the effect of edoxaban administration on D-dimer levels after THA., Results: The incidence of bleeding events after THA did not differ significantly between groups. In the multivariate model, dose reduction of edoxaban did not correlate with D-dimer levels on postoperative days 7 and 14, but higher D-dimer levels at postoperative days 7 and 14 correlated significantly with longer duration of surgery (odds ratio (OR) 1.66, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.20 - 2.29, p = 0.002; OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.17 - 2.29, p = 0.004, respectively)., Conclusion: These results suggest that information on the duration of surgery may be useful in the pharmaceutical management in edoxaban drug prophylaxis combined with physical prophylaxis after THA in Japanese patients.

Purpose: It is important to accurately estimate accurate vancomycin (VCM) clearance (CLvcm) for appropriate VCM dosing in the treatment of patients with sepsis. However, the pathophysiology of sepsis can make CLvcm prediction less accurate. Clearance of hydrophilic antibiotics is disturbed by organ dysfunction, and hemoglobin levels are negatively correlated with sequential organ function assessment scores. We investigated whether hemoglobin levels are associated with CLvcm in sepsis patients., Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients treated with VCM in the Emergency and Critical Care Center of Nihon University Itabashi Hospital between 2005 and 2015. We enrolled 72 patients after exclusion of patients who received renal replacement therapy or surgery, had a change in hemoglobin levels more than 2 g/dL or received an erythrocyte infusion during the interval between initial VCM administration and measurement of initial trough levels, had a serum baseline creatinine level of ≥ 2 mg/dL, or were under 18 years old., Results: Enrolled patients consisted of 13 non-sepsis patients and 59 sepsis patients. In sepsis patients, although CLvcm was correlated with CrCl in HGB ≥ 9 group as well as in non-sepsis patients, its correlation was not observed in HGB < 9 group. Hemoglobin levels were correlated with CLvcm in sepsis patients but not in non-sepsis patient. Multiple linear regression analysis also indicated that lower CLvcm was associated with lower hemoglobin and CrCl., Conclusion: Lower hemoglobin levels influence a relationship between CLvcm and CrCl in sepsis patients. We propose that VCM dosing should be adjusted for hemoglobin levels in sepsis patients.

Background: Appropriate initial dosing of vancomycin (VCM) is important in improving survival and in preventing nephrotoxicity in critically ill patients, but the potential relationship between initial VCM trough levels and early-onset nephrotoxicity remains unclear. We examined the relationship between initial VCM trough levels and early-onset VCM-associated nephrotoxicity., Methods: We performed a retrospective study of patients who had therapeutic drug monitoring of VCM with initial trough levels within 4 days after the beginning of VCM administration. We excluded patients who received renal replacement therapy from 2 days before to 7 days after the beginning of VCM administration, were younger than 18 years, or had renal dysfunction before the beginning of VCM administration. Early-onset VCM-associated nephrotoxicity was defined as an increase in serum creatinine level of ≥0.5 mg/dL (44.2 μmol/L) or 50% above baseline for 2 or more consecutive days within 7 days after the beginning of VCM administration., Results: Among 109 enrolled patients, 13 patients had early-onset VCM-associated nephrotoxicity. Its incidence rate was 31.3% in patients with initial trough levels of ≥20g/mL, which was significantly higher than 6.3% in patients with initial trough levels of <10 mg/L. Multiple logistic regression analysis demonstrated that early-onset VCM-associated nephrotoxicity was associated with initial trough levels of ≥20 mg/L (odds ratio, 5.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-19.1) and with vasopressor use (odds ratio, 5.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-19.1). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the probability of nonnephrotoxicity for patients with initial VCM trough levels of ≥20 mg/L was lower compared with patients with trough levels of <15 mg/L., Conclusions: Initial trough levels of ≥20 mg/L but not ≥15 mg/L were associated with early-onset VCM-associated nephrotoxicity in critically ill patients. Future prospective studies are needed to examine outcomes in critically ill patients achieving initial VCM trough levels of 15-20 mg/L.

The Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report (JADER) database was used to examine the risk of delirium and the time of its onset with various hypnotics, including 10 benzodiazepines (BZDs), 3 non-benzodiazepines (non-BZDs), 1 melatonin receptor agonist (MRTA), and 1 orexin receptor inhibitor (OXRI). Data entered in the JADER database between April 1, 2004 and February 1, 2016 were analyzed. The index for safety signal detection, the reporting odds ratio (ROR), was the odds ratio for adverse drug reaction reporting. The ROR for each drug was calculated; a signal was considered present if the lower bound of the 95% confidence interval of the ROR was greater than 1. The time to onset of delirium was calculated for drugs for which the number of days from the start of drug administration to delirium onset was reported. During the period examined in the analysis, a total of 621114 adverse drug reaction reports were seen, and the total number of delirium reports was 1417 after redundant cases were excluded. A signal was detected for 5 of the 10 BZDs and all 3 non-BZDs, with no signal for the MRTA and the OXRI. The time of delirium onset varied widely even for drugs classified as being in the same action duration group, and no correlation was seen for delirium onset time. The results of this study suggested that delirium risk varies depending on the hypnotic. Thus, hypnotics can be selected according to their delirium risk.

Purpose: Vancomycin (VCM) is used in the treatment of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection. The dosage of VCM must be adjusted by using therapeutic drug monitoring because of the drug's narrow therapeutic concentration window. Although optimal administration based on population pharmacokinetic (PPK) analysis and/or a Bayesian method has improved prediction accuracy, serum concentrations of VCM in patients with sepsis often deviate significantly from predicted values. We investigated factors influencing prediction errors with PPK analysis in VCM dosing., Methods: This retrospective cohort study included patients treated with VCM. Their clinical data were recorded, and there were 27 nonseptic patients and 68 septic patients. VCM concentrations were predicted by using PPK analysis and data compared with observed concentrations., Findings: Patients with sepsis had a higher mean absolute error than nonseptic patients, indicating a deviation of VCM concentrations from predicted values in the septic patients. To determine factors influencing prediction errors, we classified patients with sepsis into 3 subgroups according to the mean absolute error value (2.17) for the nonseptic patients: "lower" group (prediction errors, below -2.17), "upper" group (>2.17), and "no change" group (-2.17 to 2.17). In a comparison of clinical characteristics of the 3 groups, significant differences were found in the duration of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), SIRS score, disseminated intravascular coagulation score, and levels of creatinine clearance (CrCl), hemoglobin, and diastolic blood pressure. Multiple logistic regression analysis identified SIRS duration and CrCl as factors associated with VCM concentrations in the lower and/or upper groups of septic patients. Shorter and longer SIRS duration were associated with VCM concentrations in the lower group and the upper group, respectively, compared with predicted values in patients with sepsis. According to receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis, the optimal cutoff value of SIRS duration for the lower group was 2 days; for the upper group, it was 6 days. VCM clearance in patients with an SIRS duration <2 days was higher than that for patients with an SIRS duration ≥6 days., Implications: SIRS duration was identified as influencing VCM concentration in patients with sepsis. This study has 2 limitations. First, we performed blood sampling only for trough concentrations. Repeated blood sampling for both peak and trough concentrations should be performed for more accurate pharmacokinetic evaluation in critically ill patients. Second, we determined CrCl by using the Cockcroft-Gault formula, which may not be accurate in critically ill patients. Modifying VCM dosing according to SIRS duration will improve prediction accuracy of VCM concentration based on therapeutic drug monitoring., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier HS Journals, Inc. All rights reserved.)

We performed a systematic review of the effectiveness of anti-emetics for prophylaxis of cisplatin-induced delayed emesis using meta-analysis. We selected 12 reports of randomized controlled trials from MEDLINE (1966-2003. 4) and The Cochrane Library Issue 1, 2003. Nine of these reports were evaluated as high quality and the others as low quality according to the evaluation criteria of Jadad et al., and only the high-quality reports were subjected to meta-analysis. The statistical results obtained from all 12 reports were also compared with those obtained from the 9 reports of high quality. Corticosteroids significantly reduced the occurrence of delayed emesis. Metoclopramide tended to reduce the occurrence of delayed emesis, although not to a significant extent. In contrast, 5-HT3 receptor antagonists did not show a significant prophylactic effect on delayed emesis. Combination treatments using corticosteroids with metoclopramide or 5-HT3 receptor antagonists did not show significant additional benefits over corticosteroids alone. In conclusion, treatment with corticosteroids without additional metoclopramide or 5-HT3 receptor antagonists appears to be preferable for the prevention of delayed emesis induced by cisplatin.