ACTA MEDICA
ACTA MEDICA
Acta Medica (Hradec Králové) is an English language multidisciplinary medical journal. Acta Medica publishes reviews, original articles, brief communications, case reports, announcements, and notices. The journal was founded in 1958 under the title “A Collection of Scientific Works of the Charles University’s Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové”. The journal is indexed in Chemical Abstracts, CNKI, DOAJ, EBSCO, Hinari, Index Medicus, MEDLINE, Scopus, and Ulrichsweb.

ACTA MEDICA, Vol 62 No 2 (2019), 52–57

The Assessment of Serum Drug Levels to Diagnose Non-Adherence in Stable Chronic Heart Failure Patients

Radek Pelouch, Viktor Voříšek, Věra Furmanová, Miroslav Solař

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/18059694.2019.46
published online: 26. 07. 2019

abstract

Background: The aim of our study was to evaluate the prevalence of drug non-adherence in stable chronic heart failure (CHF) patients using serum drug levels (SDL) assessment. Methods: CHF patients were prospectively enrolled during scheduled outpatient visit. Except standard procedures an unanticipated blood sampling for the SDL assessment was obtained. Analysis was focused on the prescribed heart failure and antihypertensive medication and was performed by liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The patient was labelled as non-adherent if at least one of drugs assessed was not found in the serum. In the first half of patients multiple SDL have been evaluated during the follow-up. Results: Eighty one patients were enrolled. The non-adherence was proven in twenty of them (25%). In the subgroup of thirty eight patients with multiple SDL evaluation the non-adherence raised significantly with increasing number of visits assessed together (21% for single visit, 29% for two of three visits assessed together and 34% for all three visits evaluated together, all p < 0.001). Conclusion: The non-adherence was proven in significant part of stable CHF patients using SDL assessment. This method seems to be reliable and effective and should be a part of clinical assessment in selected patients with CHF.

keywords: chronic heart failure; drug non-adherence; pharmacotherapy; serum drug levels

Creative Commons License
The Assessment of Serum Drug Levels to Diagnose Non-Adherence in Stable Chronic Heart Failure Patients is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

210 x 297 mm
periodicity: 4 x per year
print price: 150 czk
ISSN: 1211-4286
E-ISSN: 1805-9694

Download