Using Medicare Data to Assess the Proarrhythmic Risk of Non-Cardiac Treatment Drugs that Prolong the QT Interval in Older Adults: An Observational Cohort Study.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Serious cardiac arrhythmias caused by QT-prolonging drugs are difficult to predict based on physiological measurement and pre-approval clinical trials. Post-marketing surveillance and monitoring are important to generate safety data.

Objectives

To assess whether an observational study using Medicare claims data can detect the arrhythmogenic risk of QT-prolonging drugs.

Methods

We identified 17 QT-prolonging drugs with known risk of torsades des pointes (TdP) that were not used to treat cardiac arrhythmias. Amoxicillin and four serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) were used as controls. De-identified claims data of 1.2 million Medicare beneficiaries were accessed. Two separate Cox regressions were done for short-term and chronic-use drugs.

SUBMITTER: Fung KW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7875170 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature