The heart drug Digoxin has been shown the increase the risk of death in patients with heart problems.
The drug is used to treat heart disease in individuals across the globe, but new research backs up past evidence that it can lead to fatalities in those with atrial fibrillation (AF) or congestive heart failure (CHF), the European Society of Cardiology reported.
To make their findings, a research team reviewed 19 relevant studies encompassing 326,426 patients, 235,047 of which suffered from AF and 91,379 from CHF. The data revealed that out of the patients who were treated with Digoxin, there was a 21 percent increased risk of death compared to patients not being treated with the drug. Patients with AF had a 29 percent increased risk of death and CHF patients were 14 percent more prone to fatality when compared to patients not taking the drug.
The current guidelines from both the United States and European Society of Cardiology recommend the use of the drug for patients with heart failure or problems with rhythm control.
"These recommendations reflect the highly unsatisfactory data basis on which to judge the supposed benefits of digoxin." The study authors wrote, calling for a randomized controlled study on the drug. "Until such proper randomized controlled trials are being completed, digoxin should be used with great caution (including monitoring plasma levels), particularly when administered for rate control in AF."
The danger associated with the drug could also be elevated by combination with other medications, such as dronedarone in AF patients; a recent trial of which had to be ended prematurely as a result of excessive deaths among the participants.
"Digoxin has been used for decades and even now it is used in approximately one in three AF patients, yet we have been able to do this meta-analysis only now. My personal feeling is that the time of digoxin - particularly as a heart rate-controlling drug in AF - is over. But this needs to be tested in appropriately designed studies," said Stefan Hohnloser, Professor of Cardiology at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the European Heart Journal.
