There is a wealth of published information describing interactions between drugs used to treat cardiovascular disease and the genetic variations that can affect how patients respond to them. But few heart specialists make routine use of this potentially life-saving data.
To help physicians make better-informed clinical decisions, researchers from the University of Chicago and Stanford University combed through scientific literature on the pharmacogenomics of 71 leading cardiovascular drugs and compiled summaries, published in the June issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
“Tens of thousands of patients have been studied and the connections between common medications and the genetic variants that can lead to adverse drug reactions or treatment non-response have been described, but few physicians track this information or even know where to find it,” said study author Peter H. O’Donnell, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago.
“One dose does not fit all,” he said. “So we set out to boost awareness and simplify access. We assessed the quantity and quality of the literature, ranked the most relevant studies for clinicians and condensed the data into a series of prescribing decision aids.”