Preferred Abstract (Original):
Objective: To investigate the frequency of potential
antihypertensive drug interactions among patients with
cardiovascular diseases receiving antihypertensive
medications.
Methods: The study took place in Nablus, Palestine
starting April through October 2003. Patients with
cardiovascular diseases (n= 876) or who were receiving
one or more antihypertensive medications were
evaluated. All drugs prescribed for the patients were
obtained from their medical files. A drug interaction
database was developed based on updated Drug
Interaction Facts to examine potential and level of drug
interactions in each patient’s regimen. Data were entered
and analyzed using SPSS software.
Results: The number of "unique" pairs of potential
drug interactions among the antihypertensive agents
present in the data was 433. These included 16 cases
(3.7%) level one; 34 cases (7.8%) level 2; 116 cases
(26.8%) level 3; 136 cases (31.4%) level 4, and 131
(30.3%) level 5 interactions. Both increasing age and
number of drugs were significantly associated with the
potential for significant interactions at all levels with a p
value less than 0.025.
Conclusions: This study found a high frequency of
potential drug interactions with agents typically used for
hypertension. Similar investigations need to be carried
out among patients with other types of chronic diseases.
Drug interaction software might be necessary in
governmental pharmacy departments.