Project summary in plain language

Drug-induced arrhythmia

Score-based stratification of the risk of QTc interval prolongation in vulnerable hospitalized patients

 

Patient group

Cardiac arrhythmias are a side effect of a large number of drugs. As a precursor for certain, potentially fatal arrhythmias, this manifests itself with many drugs through a prolongation of the “QT interval” in the ECG.
However, since a number of other factors besides medication contribute to the development of these arrhythmias, the question often arises in clinical practice as to which patients are particularly at risk and would benefit most from closer monitoring or a change in therapy.

Aim

The aim of the doctoral project is to investigate a risk score for identifying patients who are at particularly high risk of arrhythmias across different medical specialties.

Implementation

The “Tisdale-score” is used in routine care for patients in various specialties and its suitability for use in these patient groups is being investigated. Furthermore, risk factors and risk drugs for the development of arrhythmias in these patient groups are being investigated.

Result

The Tisdale-score showed excellent sensitivity (ability of a score to correctly identify patients at risk) in all patient groups investigated. A strength of the Tisdale-score is its ease of calculation in clinical practice. The studies conducted showed that risk factors for the development of arrhythmias can vary greatly in different patient groups and that high-risk drugs are frequently used, but that too little consideration is still given to this potential side effect in clinical practice.

Patient benefit

By using a suitable risk score for the development of drug-induced, potentially fatal arrhythmias, physicians and pharmacists can better decide which patients need to be monitored closely or for which patients risk drugs should be replaced by lower-risk alternatives in order to minimize the risk of developing these arrhythmias.

 

Image source: Julian Steinbrech