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* From the Departments of Pharmacy Practice and Medicine, Section of Cardiology (Dr. Bauman), University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL; and the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Administration (Dr. Sanoski), Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.
Correspondence to: Jerry L. Bauman, PharmD, University of Illinois at Chicago 833 Wood St, M/C 886, Chicago, IL 60612; e-mail: jbauman{at}uic.edu
| Abstract |
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Design: This was an observational trial of a cohort of patients receiving a stable warfarin regimen in whom oral amiodarone was initiated. Patients received both amiodarone and warfarin for at least 1 year, and the dosage of warfarin was adjusted as clinically necessary to achieve an international normalized ratio of 2 to 3. Data from a total of 43 patients were analyzed.
Results: At baseline, prior to initiation of amiodarone, the warfarin dose was 5.2 ± 2.6 mg/d. The magnitude of the interaction between these two agents peaked at 7 weeks, which resulted in a 44% mean maximum reduction in the warfarin dose. The warfarin dose inversely correlated with the maintenance dose of amiodarone (r2 = 0.94, p < 0.005). Minor bleeding episodes occurred in five patients (12%). For patients receiving amiodarone maintenance doses of 400, 300, 200, or 100 mg/d, it is recommended that the daily warfarin dose be reduced by approximately 40%, 35%, 30%, or 25%, respectively.
Conclusions: The magnitude of the amiodarone/warfarin interaction is highly dependent on the maintenance dose of amiodarone. This relationship can aid clinicians in adjusting the dose of warfarin patients receiving long-term amiodarone treatment.
Key Words: amiodarone drug/drug interaction warfarin
| Introduction |
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One of the most frequently encountered drug interactions with amiodarone is with the anticoagulant warfarin. Because of their increased risk for thromboembolic events, patients with atrial fibrillation/flutter, prosthetic valves, left ventricular dysfunction, and/or a history of thromboembolic disorders require prophylactic anticoagulation with warfarin. Symptomatic supraventricular and/or ventricular arrhythmias will also develop in many of these patients, who may require the use of an antiarrhythmic, of which amiodarone is the most frequently employed.
Amiodarone strongly potentiates the anticoagulant effects of warfarin, resulting in prolongation of the international normalized ratio (INR) and increased risk of bleeding. Although commonly encountered in clinical practice, this interaction has only been described in the literature in studies with limited numbers of patients being followed up for relatively short periods of time.11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 However, because of the prolonged and variable elimination half-life of amiodarone, it is possible that these data may not be sufficient to fully characterize this drug interaction. Moreover, although most practitioners are cognizant of the recommendations for reducing the dose of warfarin on initiation of therapy with amiodarone, a detailed relationship between the maintenance dose of this antiarrhythmic and the magnitude of this drug interaction with long-term treatment has not been defined.
Therefore, this study was conducted to more completely characterize the drug interaction between amiodarone and warfarin over a longer period of time in a larger patient population and to determine if the magnitude of this interaction is dependent on the maintenance dose of amiodarone. Our results are germane to clinicians confronted with this drug/drug interaction and may aid them in the adjustment of long-term warfarin therapy.
| Materials and Methods |
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The warfarin dose was adjusted as necessary to maintain a therapeutic INR, which was defined in the majority of patients as an INR of 2 to 3. In a small subset of patients, however, the INR was maintained between the ranges of 2.5 to 3.5 and 1.5 to 2.5 for valvular replacement and dilated cardiomyopathy indications, respectively. On initiation of amiodarone, INRs were generally monitored every week for 1 month, and then on a monthly basis thereafter.
Amiodarone therapy was routinely initiated in the hospital with the administration of an oral loading dose of 800 to 1,600 mg/d for 1 week. Patient medications were then gradually tapered to maintenance doses on an ambulatory basis. In the absence of an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, patients with recurrent, sustained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillator received a maintenance dose of 400 mg/d. A maintenance dose of 200 mg/d was used in patients with atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, nonsustained ventricular tachycardia, or sustained ventricular tachycardia with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. Further reductions in the maintenance dose of amiodarone were made depending on the patients clinical response. This study was approved by the University of Illinois at Chicago Institutional Review Board.
Statistical Analysis
An analysis of variance with a post hoc Bonferroni
test was used to compare the mean warfarin doses at baseline and during
concomitant therapy with amiodarone. At each clinic visit, the
patients dose of amiodarone and corresponding dose of warfarin was
noted over the study period. From this data set, the mean doses of
amiodarone and warfarin were calculated and linear regression was used
to examine the correlation between them. The relationships between age,
weight, gender, or left ventricular ejection fraction and the mean
maximum percentage reduction in the warfarin dose were also analyzed by
linear regression. Maximum percent reduction of warfarin for each
patient and at each dose of amiodarone was calculated. Comparisons of
mean maximum percentage reductions in the warfarin dose observed during
therapy with amiodarone were performed using the Students
t test. The level of statistical significance was defined as
a p value < 0.05; all data are expressed as mean ± SD.
| Results |
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Prior to initiation of therapy with amiodarone, the mean warfarin dosage and INR were 5.2 ± 2.6 mg/d and 2.02 ± 0.73, respectively. The mean dosage of amiodarone at baseline was 909 ± 456 mg/d. By the end of the first week, the mean dosage of amiodarone decreased to 327 ± 186 mg/d (Fig 1 ). After this time period, the mean dose of amiodarone continued to gradually decrease, with the average daily dose at the end of the 1-year study period being 246 ± 83 mg.
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Although a therapeutic INR was maintained throughout the study period (Fig 1) , minor bleeding, characterized by either nose or gum bleeding, occurred in five patients (12%). No major hemorrhagic episodes were observed in the study population.
As expected, the 400 mg/d and 200 mg/d dosages of amiodarone were most commonly used; there were 253 observations (ie, visits) at the 400 mg/d dosage, 39 observations at the 300 mg/d dosage, 288 observations at the 200 mg/d dosage, and 24 observations at the 100 mg/d dosage. A strong inverse correlation between the dose of amiodarone and mean dose of warfarin was observed (r2 = 0.94, p < 0.05; Fig 2 ). As the maintenance dosage of amiodarone decreased from 400 to 100 mg/d, the mean daily dosage of warfarin correspondingly increased from 3.2 ± 0.1 to 3.9 ± 0.2 mg. Based on these findings, 38 ± 1.7%, 36 ± 4.4%, 31 ± 1.9%, or 25 ± 4.4% reductions in the daily warfarin dose were necessary for patients receiving amiodarone maintenance dosages of 400, 300, 200, or 100 mg/d, respectively.
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| Discussion |
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Therefore, the ability of amiodarone to block the biotransformation of warfarin, primarily the (-)-S-enantiomer, to inactive metabolites is responsible for the enhanced anticoagulant effect observed in patients receiving both drugs.
Although it is widely recognized that amiodarone potentiates the anticoagulant effects of warfarin, the time course and magnitude of this clinically significant drug interaction has not been thoroughly examined or fully characterized. Previously, most of the descriptions of the interaction between these two agents were derived from isolated case reports and small studies.11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 The most frequently cited of these studies was conducted by Kerin et al11 in 1988. This was a retrospective review of eight patients receiving concomitant amiodarone and warfarin therapy who were followed up for a period of 8 weeks. All patients received identical IV and oral loading doses of amiodarone followed by a maintenance dosage of 200 to 400 mg/d. After initiation of the amiodarone therapy, a 44% mean maximum increase in PT was observed, and occurred during the first week in five patients and during the second week in the other three patients. This increase in PT necessitated a 35% mean reduction in the warfarin dose. In a larger trial by Almog et al,18 30 patients (17 of whom had amiodarone added to a stable warfarin regimen) receiving both warfarin and amiodarone were analyzed. There was a significant (inverse) correlation between serum concentration of amiodarone and the dose of warfarin required to maintain a therapeutic PT. The authors recommended a 50% reduction in the dosage of warfarin for 400 mg/d of amiodarone and 35% reduction for 200 mg/d. The results of these two studies are consistent with those reported here; in addition, we decided to follow up all patients over a 1-year period to reasonably ensure that steady-state amiodarone concentrations were achieved.
In examining the mean dose of amiodarone that our patient population received over time, the abrupt reduction that occurred during the first 2 weeks of therapy reflects the transition from the initial loading dose to a maintenance dose regimen. Although the largest decline in the dose of warfarin occurred in the first 2 weeks of concurrent therapy, the full extent of the interaction took 6 to 8 weeks. The gradual decrease in the dose of amiodarone that was observed thereafter was representative of the effort that is often made to reduce the dose of amiodarone in order to minimize the development of adverse effects while still maintaining efficacy (Fig 1) . The declining trend in the dose of amiodarone occurred in concert with a corresponding gradual increase in the dose of warfarin needed to achieve a therapeutic INR. In fact, the mean dose of warfarin returned to near that of baseline values at the end of the 12-month study period. In practical terms, as the maintenance dose of amiodarone is reduced during long-term therapy, the corresponding dose of warfarin will need to be chronically adjusted and the INR will require continual monitoring in order to maintain a therapeutic level of anticoagulation.
Because of the observational nature of this study, not all patients received each possible dose of amiodarone; each patient did not contribute equally to the correlation. Nonetheless, analysis of the data demonstrated a strong inverse relationship between the mean dose of warfarin and the dose of amiodarone. This relationship could be used to assist clinicians with the selection of appropriate doses of warfarin for patients who are concurrently receiving different doses of amiodarone. For those patients in whom amiodarone is added to a stable warfarin regimen, we recommend an initial, empiric reduction in the dose of warfarin of about one third. Subsequently on a long-term basis, one can anticipate the need to reduce the dose of warfarin by approximately 40% when using a maintenance amiodarone dosage of 400 mg/d. Thereafter, as the dosage of amiodarone is decreased in 100 mg/d increments, an additional 5% reduction (relative to baseline) in the dose of warfarin necessary to achieve on INR of 2 to 3 will be necessary.
In conclusion, the magnitude of the interaction between amiodarone and warfarin appears to be highly dependent on the maintenance dose of amiodarone. Because of the inverse correlation observed between the doses of these commonly utilized agents, warfarin dosing guidelines can be developed based on the maintenance dose of amiodarone. By incorporating these guidelines into clinical practice, the initiation and maintenance of therapeutic warfarin therapy can be facilitated in patients receiving amiodarone therapy, and adverse sequelae of this significant interaction may be minimized.
| Footnotes |
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Presented in part at the American College of Cardiology 47th Annual Scientific Session, Atlanta, GA, March 29 to April 1, 1998.
Received for publication March 14, 2001. Accepted for publication May 29, 2001.
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