The Imperfective Past

The objective of our study was to investigate whether use of antipsychotics is associated with hip/femur fractures and whether pharmacological differences between antipsychotics are related to the occurrence of fractures.A case-control study was conducted, in which cases were defined as patients with a hip/femur fracture. Each patient was matched to one control patient. The association between use of antipsychotics and the occurrence of hip/femur fractures was evaluated using conditional logistic regression.The study included 44,500 patients from 683 general practices from different geographical areas in the UK, registered within the General Practice Research Database (GPRD). Exposure to antipsychotics was categorized as “no use”, “current use” and “prior use”.Both current and prior use of antipsychotics were associated with an approximately two-fold increased risk of fractures. After adjustment for possible confounders, a small significant effect remained (Odds Ratios (OR) of 1.3). We did not find an association between dose of antipsychotics, or between the degree of blockade of the alpha-1 adrenoceptor or histamine-1 receptor and risk of fractures. The total number of days of antipsychotic use was significantly associated with an increased risk of hip/femur fractures.We conclude that there is a small increased risk of hip/femur fractures associated with the use of antipsychotics. This risk increases with long-term use

DosEmi study protocol: a phase IV, multicentre, open-label, crossover study to evaluate non-inferiority of pharmacokinetic-guided reduced dosing compared with conventional dosing of emicizumab in people with haemophilia A

INTRODUCTION: Emicizumab effectively prevents bleeding in people with haemophilia A (PwHA), but is a burden for national healthcare budgets and consequently may limit access. According to the drug label, dosing of emicizumab is based on body weight with fixed intervals of 7, 14 or 28 days, which leads to mean plasma concentrations of 55 µg/mL (SD 15 µg/mL). However, a moderate variability of concentrations and a minimal effective concentration of 30 µg/mL have been suggested in studies. Therefore, a dose of emicizumab that targets a trough concentration of 30 µg/mL is hypothesised to be equally effective as conventional dosing in the prevention of bleeding. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We designed a phase IV, multicentre, open-label, crossover study to evaluate non-inferiority of bleed control of ≥6 months on conventional dosing in comparison to ≥6 months on dose intervention. This dose intervention consists of reducing the dose of emicizumab to target a trough concentrations of 30 µg/mL using individual pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters. Ninety-five PwHA aged >1 years who received conventional dosing of emicizumab for ≥12 months with good bleeding control during the last 6 months will be recruited from all Dutch haemophilia treatment centres. The study is powered to detect a clinically relevant decrease (risk difference) of 15% in the proportion of patients without treated bleeds during follow-up. Secondary endpoints are spontaneous joint or muscle bleeds, and annualised treated bleeding rates (using negative binomial regression). Cost-effectivity between conventional dosing and individualised PK-guided dosing of emicizumab will be compared. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The DosEmi study was approved by the Medical Ethics Review Committee NedMec of the University Medical Center of Utrecht, The Netherlands. Study results will be communicated through publications in international scientific journals and presentations at (inter)national conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: EUCTR2021-004039-10-NL at https://trialsearch.who.int. PROTOCOL VERSION: V.4.1 on 28 October 2022 (DosEmi protocol_V4.1; NL81112.041.22)

Use of measures of disproportionality in pharmacovigilance:three Dutch examples

Spontaneous reporting systems for suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) remain a cornerstone of pharmacovigilance. In The Netherlands 'the Netherlands Pharmacovigilance Foundation Lareb' maintains such a system. A primary aim in pharmacovigilance is the timely detection of either new ADRs or a change of the frequency of ADRs that are already known to be associated with the drugs involved, i.e. signal detection. Adequate signal detection solely based on the human intellect (case by case analysis or qualitative signal detection) is becoming time consuming given the increasingly large number of data, as well as less effective, especially in more complex associations such as drug-drug interactions, syndromes and when various covariates are involved. In quantitative signal detection measures that express the extent in which combinations of drug(s) and clinical event(s) are disproportionately present in the database of reported suspected ADRs are used to reveal associations of interest. Although the rationale and the methodology of the various quantitative approaches differ, they all share the characteristic that they express to what extent the number of observed cases differs from the number of expected cases. In this paper three Dutch examples are described in which a measure of disproportionality is used in quantitative signal detection in pharmacovigilance: (i) the association between antidepressant drugs and the occurrence of non-puerpural lactation as an example of an association between a single drug and a single event; (ii) the onset or worsening of congestive heart failure associated with the combined use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and diuretics as an example of an association between two drugs and a single event (drug-drug interaction); and the (iii) (co)-occurrence of fever, urticaria and arthralgia and the use of terbinafine as an example of an association between a single drug and multiple events (syndrome). We conclude that the use of quantitative measures in addition to qualitative analysis is a step forward in signal detection in pharmacovigilance. More research is necessary into the performance of these approaches, especially its predictive value, its robustness as well as into further extensions of the methodology

Drug-related nephrotoxic and ototoxic reactions:a link through a predictive mechanistic commonality

BACKGROUND: Drug-induced ototoxicity is a subject of interest because many diseases are treated with drugs that have potential toxic effects on the ear. There is evidence that both inner ear and kidney tissue are immunologically, biochemically and functionally related. It has been suggested that drugs that influence the transport of sodium and/or potassium change ionic homeostasis in the inner ear and, hence, induce functional disturbances such as hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo. OBJECTIVES: To assess whether renal suspected adverse drug reactions (sADRs) have predictive value for ear and labyrinth adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and whether drug classes involved have influence ion transport systems. STUDY DESIGN: Data were obtained from the Netherlands Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb. The study base comprised all reports of sADRs up until 1 January 2007. Cases were all sADRs for relevant renal disorders and all sADRs for relevant ear disorders. All other reported sADRs were selected as 'non-cases'. The relationship between drug classes and renal, ear and labyrinth sADRs was evaluated by calculating reporting odds ratios (RORs). An ROR > or = 1.50 was regarded as a cut-off value for an association. Drug classes were classified into four groups: (A) ROR kidney <1.50 and ROR ear <1.50 or no reports on ear sADRs (reference group); (B) ROR kidney <1.50 and ROR ear > or = 1.50; (C) ROR kidney > or = 1.50 and ROR ear <1.50 or no reports on ear sADRs; and (D) ROR kidney > or = 1.50 and ROR ear > or = 1.50. For each group, we calculated odds ratios (ORs) for the association between the group classification and the effect on ion channels/ion transport systems in kidney and ear tissues. RESULTS: Of 193 drug classes with relevant ADRs for renal disorders, 120 drug classes also had reports on ototoxic reactions. Fourteen out of 120 drug classes had an ROR > or = 1.50 for the association between the drug class and both renal and ear sADRs. Among these drug classes were several with a well known ability to induce renal (adverse) effects and ear and labyrinth disorders, such as loop diuretics, aminoglycosides and quinine. We found that one mechanistic commonality of the drug classes mentioned in the reports was the ability to affect ion transport systems. The percentage of drugs having this property differed between the four groups. The ORs for groups D and B were significantly higher compared with the reference group (OR 12.2, 95% CI 3.0, 30.5 and OR 8.7, 95% CI 2.4, 18.7, respectively), whereas there was no association for group C. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that renal sADRs as such are not a marker for drug-induced ear and labyrinth disorders. However, the ability of drugs to act on ion channels or ion transport systems and, therefore, have an influence on ionic homeostasis in the kidney and ear might be a predictor for the possible occurrence of drug-related ototoxicity