Comparison of effects of antihypertensive drugs on heart rate: changes from baseline by baseline group and over time. Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study Group on Antihypertensive Agents

Leveraging large-scale biobank EHRs to enhance pharmacogenetics of cardiometabolic disease medications

Electronic health records (EHRs) coupled with large-scale biobanks offer great promises to unravel the genetic underpinnings of treatment efficacy. However, medication-induced biomarker trajectories stemming from such records remain poorly studied. Here, we extract clinical and medication prescription data from EHRs and conduct GWAS and rare variant burden tests in the UK Biobank (discovery) and the All of Us program (replication) on ten cardiometabolic drug response outcomes including lipid response to statins, HbA1c response to metformin and blood pressure response to antihypertensives (N = 740-26,669). Our findings at genome-wide significance level recover previously reported pharmacogenetic signals and also include novel associations for lipid response to statins (N = 26,669) near LDLR and ZNF800. Importantly, these associations are treatment-specific and not associated with biomarker progression in medication-naive individuals. Furthermore, we demonstrate that individuals with higher genetically determined low-density and total cholesterol baseline levels experience increased absolute, albeit lower relative biomarker reduction following statin treatment. In summary, we systematically investigated the common and rare pharmacogenetic contribution to cardiometabolic drug response phenotypes in over 50,000 UK Biobank and All of Us participants with EHR and identified clinically relevant genetic predictors for improved personalized treatment strategies.

Treatment retention on fingolimod compared with injectable multiple sclerosis therapies in African-American patients: A subgroup analysis of a randomized phase 4 study

BACKGROUND

Suboptimal persistence with injectable disease-modifying therapies (iDMTs; interferon beta-1a/b, glatiramer acetate) is common in patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), reducing the effectiveness of these agents. Adherence to, and persistence with, an effective therapy is important for patient populations at increased risk of rapid disease progression. African-American individuals with multiple sclerosis may experience a more aggressive disease course than Caucasian patients, with a greater risk of developing ambulatory difficulties and other disabilities, and may also have a diminished response to some disease-modifying therapies compared with patients of other ethnicities. Retention on oral fingolimod and on iDMTs was evaluated in a post hoc analysis of data from African-American patients in the parallel-group, 48-week 'Prospective, Randomized, active-controlled, open-label study to Evaluate patient retention on Fingolimod versus approved first-line disease modifying thErapies in adults with Relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis' (PREFERMS).

METHODS

In PREFERMS, patients with relapsing-remitting MS aged 18-65 years with an Expanded Disability Status Scale score ≤6 enrolled at 117 US study sites were treatment-naïve or had received only one iDMT class. Patients were randomized 1:1 (fingolimod 0.5 mg/day:preselected iDMT) using an interactive voice-and-web-response system without blinding, followed up quarterly, and allowed one study-approved treatment switch after 12 weeks, or earlier, for efficacy or safety reasons only. The primary outcome was patient retention on randomized treatment over 48 weeks. In this post hoc analysis of African-American patients in PREFERMS, outcome variables included rate of patient retention on randomized treatment, reasons for discontinuing randomized treatment, patient-reported treatment satisfaction, and safety. Clinical and radiographic outcomes such as annualized relapse rate, brain volume loss, and lesion count changes were also investigated.

RESULTS

In PREFERMS, 141 of 875 patients (16.1%) randomized to a study drug were African-American. Analysis of data for the full analysis set of 67 patients receiving fingolimod and 69 receiving iDMTs showed that the retention rate over 48 weeks was significantly higher with fingolimod than with iDMTs (80.6% [n = 54] vs 30.4% [n = 21]; between-group difference: 50.2%; 95% confidence interval 35.8-64.6%; p < 0.0001). The most common treatment switch was from an iDMT to fingolimod for injection-related reasons, and patient satisfaction was greater with fingolimod than with iDMTs. Adverse events were consistent with the respective prescribing information for each treatment.

CONCLUSION

In PREFERMS, fingolimod was associated with better treatment retention than iDMTs in African-American patients. Optimal outcomes in the management of multiple sclerosis depend on good persistence with treatment, and this is particularly important in patient populations at increased risk of a rapidly progressing disease course.

Resting heart rate, heart rate reserve, and metabolic syndrome in professional firefighters: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Little is known about the associations of resting heart rate (RHR) and heart rate reserve (HRR) with metabolic syndrome (MetS) in firefighters.

METHODS

For each of 288 professional firefighters, HRR was calculated as the difference between measured RHR and estimated maximum HR. For comparison, VO₂ max based on a treadmill test was included. MetS was defined according to the NCEP/ATP III criteria.

RESULTS

The prevalence of MetS was 14.2%. The average of RHR was 61.5 beat/min. Only 5.8% of the firefighters had RHR of ≥80 beat/min. Between the firefighters in the lowest and highest quintiles, the prevalence ratios (95% confidence intervals) for MetS were 1.88 (0.71-4.94), 5.90 (1.74-20.02), and 8.03 (1.86-34.75) for RHR, HRR, and VO₂ max, respectively. Both HRR and VO₂ max, but not RHR, were significantly associated with MetS and its most component risk factors in middle-aged firefighters.

CONCLUSIONS

HRR, a simple cardiovascular fitness measure, was inversely associated with MetS among middle-aged professional firefighters.

Novel approaches for medication compliance and effectiveness analysis and support in cardiovascular disease patients

HeartCycle is an integrated project aiming to provide a disease management solution for cardiovascular disease patients, by developing technologies, algorithms to interpret data and services to facilitate the remote management of patients at home. In this paper an overview of part of the algorithmic work package, oriented at motivating the patients to be compliant to treatment regimes and to adopt a beneficial lifestyle, will be given. A concept allowing further education of the patient on the effect of medication on their vital signs, as well as the prediction of medication effect and a possible way to check compliance using vital signs measurements will be presented.

Heart rate in hypertensive patients treated with ACE inhibitors and long-acting dihydropyridine calcium antagonists

Rapid heart rate (HR) has been reported to be a predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in hypertensive patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of ACE inhibitors and long-acting dihydropyridine calcium antagonists on clinic and ambulatory HR in patients with essential hypertension. We selected 292 hypertensive patients treated with ACE inhibitors and 198 hypertensive patients treated with dihydropyridine calcium antagonists. Groups were balanced for age, gender, body mass index, baseline blood pressure (BP) and HR, treatment duration and occupation. Patients had been submitted to clinic evaluation and noninvasive monitoring of BP and HR at baseline and during chronic therapy. Clinic and ambulatory BP were significantly and similarly reduced in patients treated with ACE inhibitors and calcium antagonists. Globally, clinic and 24-h HR were significantly reduced in patients treated with ACE inhibitors and remained unchanged in those treated with calcium antagonists. When patients were grouped according to baseline clinic HR (< 65 beats/min, 65-74 beats/min, 75-84 beats/min, and >85 beats/min), ACE inhibitors did not significantly change HR in subjects with baseline clinic HR <74 beats/min but significantly reduced clinic, 24-h, daytime and nighttime HR in those with baseline HR >75 beats/min and particularly in those with baseline HR >85 beats/min. Calcium antagonists did not significantly change clinic, 24-h, daytime and nighttime HR in various subgroups. Our study shows that ACE inhibitors reduce both clinic and ambulatory HR in hypertensive patients with faster HR, who seem to be at higher risk, and that long-acting dihydropyridine calcium antagonists do not induce significant changes in HR during chronic treatment (neither decrease nor increase). Whether this aspect is associated with a better prognostic impact of ACE inhibitors in essential hypertension should be determined in prospective studies.