Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25335855›Full record

ArticlePharmacoepidemiology and drug safety2014

Prescription trends of immunosuppressive drugs in post-heart transplant recipients in Taiwan, 2000-2009.

Chia-Lin Chou, Chia-Yu Chou, Ying-Yu Huang, Min-Shan Wu, Chia-Chen Hsu, Yueh-Ching Chou

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Article in Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

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3citing papers in PubMed
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3 · Its place in the literature

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3 citing papers in PubMed.

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Chia-Lin ChouDepartment of Pharmacy, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Chia-Yu Chou
Ying-Yu Huang
Min-Shan Wu
Chia-Chen Hsu
Yueh-Ching Chou

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeSignificantly increasing heart transplantations have been performed in Taiwan in the past decades, but the trends of maintenance immunosuppression for heart transplant recipients have not been well known. In this study, we aimed to explore the trends of maintenance immunosuppressive therapy and common complications for heart transplant recipients.

methodsWe retrospectively analyzed ambulatory prescriptions in 488 heart transplant recipients for the period 2000-2009. Patient complications after heart transplantation were also identified.

resultsThe annual number of new heart transplant recipients ranged from 18 to 68. The 5-year survival rate was 77.9%. The total number of regimens was 10 in 2000, and increased to 28 in 2009. Most prescriptions were immunosuppressive combinations (95.5%-89.5%). The majority of immunosuppressive regimens were a triple regimen: cyclosporine, mycophenolic acid and corticosteroid in 2009. Cyclosporine was a predominant calcineurin inhibitor with a decreasing trend from 73.9% to 59.1%, whereas the use of tacrolimus significantly increased from 11.9% to 38.4%. Mycophenolic acid was the most frequently used antimetabolite (60.1%-80.3%), while the use of azathioprine was reduced (21.6%-2.3%). From 2008, the launch of everolimus initiated a new era in the utilization of mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors for maintenance immunosuppression.

conclusionsCyclosporine remained the most frequently used calcineurin inhibitors, and tacrolimus increased gradually. Mycophenolic acid was the most popular antimetabolite rather than azathioprine. The rapidly increased everolimus combined regimen may change the patterns of maintenance immunosuppression. The increasing number of combination therapies indicates an active role of everolimus and a tendency of complex tailored individual therapies.

Indexed as

Heart TransplantationDrug Therapy, CombinationGraft RejectionHistory, 21st CenturyHumansImmunosuppressive AgentsPractice Patterns, Physicians'Retrospective StudiesTaiwanTime FactorsTransplant RecipientsImmunosuppressive Agentsheart transplantationimmunosuppressive therapypharmacoepidemiologyprescription patterns

Identifiers

PMID25335855
PMCPMC4286022

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