[Bariatric surgery and drugs: Review of the literature and Adverse Drug Reactions analysis in French National Pharmacovigilance Database]

INTRODUCTION

Bariatric surgery is the only treatment for severe obesity (BMI>35kg/m2) currently recognized as effective both in achieving tangible and lasting weight loss, and in improving obesity-related comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular complications. Bariatric surgery, like any other surgery of the digestive tract, can have an impact on nutrient absorption, as well as on drug absorption. The literature on drug management in bariatric surgery patients concerned mainly of case reports and retrospective studies involving a small number of patients. No official guidelines are available.

METHODS

We conducted a literature search on the consequences of bariatric surgery in terms of drug bioavailability and/or effect. The Medline® (PubMed) database was searched using the following keywords: "bariatric surgery", "bioavailability", "gastric bypass", and "obesity". We completed this review with an analysis of reports of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in post-bariatric surgery patients for obesity registered in the National pharmacovigilance database (PVDB). We selected all cases with the mention of "bariatric surgery and/or gastrectomy" as "medical history". After reading the cases, we excluded those in which the patient had undergone surgery for an indication other than obesity, where the route of administration was other than oral, and cases in which ADRs resulted from voluntary overdose, attempted suicide, allergy, switch to Levothyrox® new formulation, meningioma under progestative drugs, inefficacy related to generic substitution and medication error.

RESULTS

The literature search identified mainly "case report" about the impact of bariatric surgery on so-called "narrow therapeutic window" drugs. We identified 66 informative cases out of a total of 565 cases selected (11%) in the PVDB. Nevertheless, the information does not allow a clear relationship between the occurrence of the ADR and the influence of bariatric surgery.

CONCLUSION

There is a lack of official information and/or recommendations on medication use in subjects who have undergone bariatric surgery. Apart from under-reporting, ADRs reports remain largely uninformative. Health professional and patients would be awareness for improving, quantitatively and qualitatively the reporting of ADRs in this population.

Renal Complications Related to Checkpoint Inhibitors: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Strategies

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) targeting CTLA-4 and the PD-1/PD-L1 axis have unprecedentedly improved global prognosis in several types of cancers. However, they are associated with the occurrence of immune-related adverse events. Despite their low incidence, renal complications can interfere with the oncologic strategy. The breaking of peripheral tolerance and the emergence of auto- or drug-reactive T-cells are the main pathophysiological hypotheses to explain renal complications after ICI exposure. ICIs can induce a large spectrum of renal symptoms with variable severity (from isolated electrolyte disorders to dialysis-dependent acute kidney injury (AKI)) and presentation (acute tubule-interstitial nephritis in >90% of cases and a minority of glomerular diseases). In this review, the current trends in diagnosis and treatment strategies are summarized. The diagnosis of ICI-related renal complications requires special steps to avoid confounding factors, identify known risk factors (lower baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate, proton pump inhibitor use, and combination ICI therapy), and prove ICI causality, even after long-term exposure (weeks to months). A kidney biopsy should be performed as soon as possible. The treatment strategies rely on ICI discontinuation as well as co-medications, corticosteroids for 2 months, and tailored immunosuppressive drugs when renal response is not achieved.

Drug-Induced Hearing Loss in Children: An Analysis of Spontaneous Reports in the French PharmacoVigilance Database

INTRODUCTION

Hearing loss can have a negative impact on communication, with significant vocational, educational, and social consequences. Drugs are one of the causes of hearing loss in children.

OBJECTIVES

The objective of our study was to describe drug-induced hearing loss in the pediatric population.

METHODS

Reports of hearing loss from 1985 to December 2019 in the pediatric population (< 18 years) were extracted from the French PharmacoVigilance Database (FPVD). We performed a retrospective and descriptive analysis of adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports.

RESULTS

A total of 70 ADR reports were identified among the 51,216 reports registered in the FPVD, 37 involving adolescents (12-17 years, 52.9%), 28 children (2-11 years, 40.0%), and 5 infants (28 days-23 months, 7.1%). Overall, 40 reports (57.1%) involved girls. A total of 56 reports (80.0%) were "serious." The most frequent hearing disorders were deafness (n = 31, 44.3%) and hypoacusis (n = 22, 31.4%). Suspected drugs (ATC 5th level) were amikacin (n = 11, 15.7%), cisplatin (n = 11, 15.7%), doxorubicin (n = 4, 5.7%), vincristine (n = 4, 5.7%), clarithromycin (n = 4, 5.7%), ceftriaxone (n = 3, 4.3%), isotretinoin (n = 3, 4.3%), and vancomycin (n = 3, 4.3%).

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that about three out of four cases of drug-induced hearing loss in the pediatric population were "serious". It also underlines the under-reporting of these ADRs and the importance of strengthening hearing monitoring in children during and long after drug exposure.

Drug-induced tics: An observational postmarketing study

OBJECTIVES

While drug-induced tics have been described, in particular with neuroleptics, psychostimulants, or anti-epileptics, the strength and the direction of these associations are still debated. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between tics and drug exposure through a two-step analysis in two pharmacovigilance databases.

METHODS

We first performed a descriptive clinical analysis of cases registered in the French pharmacovigilance database (FPVD) from January 1985 to December 2018. We then performed a disproportionality analysis in VigiBase®, the WHO pharmacovigilance database, from January 1967 to June 2019, through the calculation of reporting odds ratio (ROR).

RESULTS

The drugs most frequently associated with tics in the FPVD were methylphenidate, lamotrigine, montelukast, tramadol, mirtazapine, venlafaxine, aripiprazole, and risperidone. In VigiBase®, we found a significant ROR with methylphenidate (ROR 37.54, 95% confidence interval [CI] 34.81-40.48), montelukast (ROR 12.18, 95% CI 10.29-14.41), aripiprazole (ROR 7.40, 95% CI 6.35-8.62), risperidone (ROR 4.40, 95% CI 3.72-5.21), and venlafaxine (ROR 1.52, 95% CI 1.14-2.03).

CONCLUSION

This postmarketing study confirmed a potential harmful association with methylphenidate (the highest association, as expected), aripiprazole, risperidone, lamotrigine, and venlafaxine and, interestingly, found a strong signal with montelukast, which, to our knowledge, had never been published before.

Can tramadol really induce hyponatraemia? A pharmacovigilance study

Several papers have described hyponatraemia with tramadol. However, in most reports, several confounding factors can be found. We used the WHO pharmacovigilance database (VigiBase®) to investigate if tramadol alone could be associated with hyponatraemia. All 1992-2019 ICSRs (individual case safety reports) with the preferred term (PT) "hyponatraemia" and tramadol were included. Two disproportionality analyses were performed: (1) after inclusion of all reports, and (2) after exclusion of concomitant hyponatraemic drugs. Results are expressed as reporting odds ratios (ROR; 95% CI) and information component (IC). Of 19 747 604 ICSRs, 225 575 were included. A significant association was found between tramadol use and reports of hyponatraemia (ROR = 1.49 [1.39-1.60], IC = 0.57 [IC₀₂₅ = 0.47]). After exclusion of hyponatraemic drugs, the previously found association disappeared. The study failed to find any pharmacovigilance signal of hyponatraemia with tramadol alone. We suggest that reports of hyponatraemia with tramadol can be explained principally by other underlying causes of hyponatraemia, especially other concomitant hyponatraemic drugs.

Parkinsonism associated with gabapentinoid drugs: A pharmacoepidemiologic study

BACKGROUND

Use of gabapentinoids is increasing. Following recent case reports, we investigated a putative risk of parkinsonism with pregabalin or gabapentin.

METHODS

A disproportionality analysis of 5,653,547 individual case safety reports in the World Health Organization individual case safety report database, VigiBase, compared all patients with parkinsonism who were receiving gabapentinoids with other patients. Results are shown as reporting odds ratios and the information component, an indicator of disproportionate Bayesian reporting. Sensitivity analyses included comparisons with drugs used for similar indications (amitriptyline, duloxetine) and exclusion of drugs that induce parkinsonism.

RESULTS

Among 5,653,547 reports, 4925 parkinsonism reports were found with pregabalin and 4881 with gabapentin. Gabapentin and pregabalin were associated with increased reporting odds ratio (2.16 [2.10-2.23], 2.43 [2.36-2.50]). Similar trends were found using information components after excluding drugs that induce parkinsonism and for pregabalin compared with amitriptyline or duloxetine.

CONCLUSIONS

This study found that gabapentinoids (particularly pregabalin) can be associated with parkinsonism. © 2019 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

A comparative study of QT prolongation with serotonin reuptake inhibitors

BACKGROUND

QT interval prolongations were described with citalopram and escitalopram. However, the effects of the other serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) remained discussed. In order to identify a putative signal with other SRIs, the present study investigates the reports of QT interval prolongation with SRIs in two pharmacovigilance databases (PVDB).

METHODS

Two kinds of investigations were performed: (1) a comparative study in VigiBase®, the WHO PVDB, where notifications of QT prolongation with six SRIs (citalopram, escitalopram, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, paroxetine, sertraline) were selected. Cases with overdose or pregnancy were excluded. The relationship between the "suspected" SRI and occurrence of QT prolongation was assessed by calculating reporting odds ratio (ROR) in a case/non-case design. (2) A descriptive study of QT prolongation reports with citalopram and escitalopram in the French FPVD.

RESULTS

In VigiBase®, 855 notifications were identified (mean age 56.2 years, mainly women 73%). Among them, 172 (20.1%) were associated to escitalopram; 299 (35.0%), to citalopram; 186 (21.8%), to fluoxetine; 94 (11.0%), to sertraline; 66 (7.7%), to paroxetine; and 38 (4.4%) to fluvoxamine. A significant ROR value (higher than 1) was only found for citalopram (3.35 CI95% [2.90-3.87]) or escitalopram (2.50 [2.11-2.95]). In the FPVD, eight reports of QT prolongation were found with citalopram and 27 with escitalopram, mainly in women (77.1%) with a mean age of 73.2 years. In 23 cases (66%), SRIs were associated with other suspected drugs, mainly cardiotropic or psychotropic ones. Hypokalemia was associated in six patients.

CONCLUSION

This study, performed in real conditions of life, shows a clear signal of QT prolongation with only two SRIs, citalopram and escitalopram, indicating that QT prolongation is not a SRI class effect.

Can drugs induce or aggravate sleep apneas? A case-noncase study in VigiBase® , the WHO pharmacovigilance database

The potential favorizing role of drugs in sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) is unknown. This study investigates drugs associated with SAS in a pharmacovigilance database. SAS recorded as adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in VigiBase^® , the WHO pharmacovigilance database (more than 11 million reports), from 1978 to 2015 was selected. The risk of SAS reports was estimated using the case-noncase method, with cases being SAS and noncases all other recorded ADRs. During this 37-year period, 3325 ADRs including the word SAS were registered (0.05% of the database). Mean age was 51.2 ± 16.9 years with 52% men. ADRs were 'serious' in around 82% of cases. The case-noncase study found an association between SAS and exposition with sodium oxybate, rofecoxib, quetiapine, and clozapine for individual drugs and coxibs, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, and opium alkaloids for drug classes. The potential role of other drugs is discussed. This study suggests that SAS can be associated with some drugs (mainly psychotropics) that are able to reveal or aggravate such a disease. Physicians should take into account the role of drugs in the etiological appraisal and management of SAS.

Ergot and non-ergot dopamine agonists and heart failure in patients with Parkinson's disease

PURPOSE

Some studies have suggested a potential risk of heart failure in patients with Parkinson's disease receiving dopamine (DA) agonists. However, the results are conflicting. We used VigiBase®, the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Individual Case Safety Reports (ICSRs) database, to investigate a potential signal strengthening of heart failure with DA agonists in Parkinsonian patients older than 45 years.

METHODS

A case/non-case (disproportionality) analysis was performed in Vigibase® using ICSRs registered between 1978 and May 2016. The signal of disproportionality was calculated using reporting odds ratios (ROR). In our study, 154 ICSRs of heart failure occurring in 154 Parkinsonian patients (mean age 69.6 years, 51 % women) treated with DA agonists were included.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

There was a significant signal between occurrence of heart failure and exposure to pergolide or cabergoline in particular and ergot derivatives in general. In contrast, none signal was found for rotigotine, pramipexole, apomorphine, or ropinirole in particular and non-ergot derivatives in general. The present study underlines the importance to prescribe as DA agonists in Parkinsonian patients only non-ergot derivatives, excluding ergot drugs.

Drug-drug interactions with imatinib: An observational study

Many patients treated with imatinib, used in cancer treatment, are using several other drugs that could interact with imatinib. Our aim was to study all the drug-drug interactions (DDIs) observed in patients treated with imatinib.We performed 2 observational studies, between the 1st January 2012 and the 31st August 2015 in the Midi-Pyrénées area (South Western France), using the French health insurance reimbursement database and then the French Pharmacovigilance Database (FPVD).A total of 544 patients received at least 1 reimbursement for imatinib. Among them, 486 (89.3%) had at least 1 drug that could potentially interact with imatinib. Paracetamol was the most frequent drug involved (77.4%). Proton pump inhibitors, dexamethasone and levothyroxine, were found in >10% of patients. In the FPVD, among a total of 25 reports of ADRs with imatinib recorded in the Midi-Pyrénées area, 10 (40%) had potential DDIs with imatinib. Imatinib was most frequently prescribed by hospital physicians and drugs interacting with imatinib, by general practitioners.Our study showed that at least 40% of the patients treated with imatinib were at risk of DDIs and that all prescribers must be cautious with DDIs in patients treated with imatinib. During imatinib treatment, we particularly recommend to limit the dose of paracetamol at 1300 mg per day, to avoid the use of dexamethasone, and to double the dose of levothyroxine.

[Drug-induced hyperglycemia: a study in the French pharmacovigilance database]

OBJECTIVE

To analyse drugs inducing hyperglycemia by using data reported to the French spontaneous reporting system and recorded in the French PharmacoVigilance Database (FPVD).

METHODS

All cases with a report of hyperglycemia and/or diabetes in the French database between 1985 and 2008 were included in the study. We estimated the risk of hyperglycemia linked to drugs by the case/non-case method. Cases were reports including hyperglycemia and non cases all other reports. This risk was estimated through calculation of reporting odds ratios (ROR).

RESULTS

During this period, 1219 reports including the words "hyperglycemia and/or diabetes" were registered (0.34% of the database). This adverse drug reaction occurred 1 fold over 4 in diabetics or as a part of HIV infection. Effect was "serious" in approximatively 50% of cases. We found an increase of risk during exposition with methylprednisolone [ROR=43.5; 95% CI (37.3-50.8)], tacrolimus [ROR=25; 95% CI (17.9-34.8)], olanzapine [ROR=19.9; 95% CI (14.9-26.5)], prednisone [ROR=18.9; 95% CI (15.7-22.8)] or pentamidine [ROR=15.4; 95% CI (8.2-28.3)].

CONCLUSION

Drug classes most frequently found in FPVD linked to hyperglycemia are antiretroviral, steroidal anti-inflammatory, second generation neuroleptic, immunosuppressive and diuretic drugs.