Prevalence, risk factors, and mortality outcome in the drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms patients with cardiac involvement.

BACKGROUND: Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) syndrome is a severe cutaneous drug reaction that can affect multiple internal organ systems. Cardiac involvement in DRESS syndrome (CiDs) is uncommon but can be life-threatening.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence, risk factors, and mortality outcome of CiDs.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Forty-one patients who were diagnosed with probable and definite DRESS syndrome according to the RegiSCAR criteria were recruited. Cardiac involvement was evaluated by two independent cardiologists.

RESULTS: The cardiac involvement was found in 8/41 (19.5%) patients. Specifically, myocardial involvement was found in five patients, while three patients had pericardial involvement. The majority of culprit drugs were antibiotics followed by anti-epileptic medications. The hemoglobin and albumin levels were significantly lower in the patients with CiDs when compared to the patients without CiDs (P-value = 0.005 for both factors). The mortality rate at 30 and 90 days was significantly higher among CiDs patients, that is, 3/8 (37.5%) versus 2/28 (6.1%); P-value = 0.02 and 4/8 (50.0%) versus 2/33 (6.1%); P-value = 0.002 respectively.

CONCLUSION: Our study showed the prevalence of CiDs was as high as 19.5% with high mortality rate. We suggest a thorough cardiac evaluation in all DRESS patients with RegiSCAR score ≥4. The patients with CiDs had significantly lower hemoglobin and albumin levels, which might imply poor health condition, when compared to those without CiDs.