Prevalence of the risk factors for QT prolongation and associated drug-drug interactions in a cohort of medical inpatients.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Medical inpatients are at increased risk of QT interval prolongation due to multiple risk actors and QT prolonging drugs. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of risk factors for QT prolongation; QT prolonging medications; associated drug-drug interactions (QT-DDIs); their predictors; and TdP (torsades de pointes) risks of drugs.

METHODS: This cohort study was carried out in medical wards of two tertiary hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The QT-DDIs were identified using Micromedex DrugReax® and AZCERT (Arizona Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics) QT drugs lists. AZCERT QT drugs lists were used to identify TdP risks. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of QT-DDIs.

RESULTS: Total 400 patients were included in this study. The most frequent QT prolonging risk factors included use of ≥1 QT prolonging drugs (74.5%), female gender (55%) and diabetes mellitus (36.3%). Total 487 QT prolonging drugs were identified. According to AZCERT classification, 33.8% of the interacting drugs were included in list-1 (known risk of TdP), 0.9% in list-2 (possible risk of TdP) and 58.8% in list-3 (conditional risk of TdP). The occurrence of QT-DDIs was significantly associated with ≥10 prescribed medications (p = 0.01), chronic liver disease (p = 0.05), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (p = 0.03), gastroenteritis (p = 0.02), antimicrobials (p < 0.001), antiemetics (p < 0.001) and antinausea (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION: A substantial number of patients were exposed to risk factors for QT prolongation; and QT prolonging drugs such as proton pump inhibitors, antimicrobials and diuretics which may lead to serious outcomes.