Sandie S-R
Well-Known Member
SOURCE: HEALTH DAY NEWS
Banned Obesity Drug Tied to Heart Risks Long After Use
Study shows appetite suppressant fenfluramine may damage cardiac
valves years later
FRIDAY, Nov. 7 (HealthDay News) -- One of the "fen/phen" drugs once
widely prescribed to help fight obesity has been tied to heart valve
damage that develops years after a person has stopped taking it, a
new study reports.
The appetite suppressant fenfluramine has been banned in the United
States since 1997, because of its links to heart damage. Thousands
of lawsuits have been filed against the drug's manufacturers over
alleged damage it caused.
In the new study, published Nov. 5 in the journal BMC Medicine,
researchers looked at 5,743 people who had stopped using
fenfluramine more than a decade earlier but had damaged heart valves
up to seven years later.
"Valve problems were common in individuals exposed to fenfluramines,
more frequent in females, and associated with duration of drug use
in all valves assessed," research leader Charles Dahl, from the
Central Utah Clinic, said in a news release issued by the journal's
publisher.
Heart valves direct blood flow around the heart. If they fail, blood
back-flows -- called regurgitation -- and can cause congestive heart
failure and the need for heart valve surgery if severe enough.
"We found clear evidence for a strong, graded association between
duration of exposure to fenfluramines and prevalence of aortic
regurgitation and for mild or greater mitral and tricuspid
regurgitation, " Dahl said.
In all, 0.44 percent of these former fenfluramine users had valve
surgery resulting from the use of the drug, a sevenfold increase in
the risk for this procedure.
"This is probably a conservative estimate, as another study has
shown that there exists a 17- to 34-fold excess of clinically
apparent (presumably severe), valvular disease in persons who had
used fenfluramines for four months or longer," the authors wrote.
http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=621107
Banned Obesity Drug Tied to Heart Risks Long After Use
Study shows appetite suppressant fenfluramine may damage cardiac
valves years later
FRIDAY, Nov. 7 (HealthDay News) -- One of the "fen/phen" drugs once
widely prescribed to help fight obesity has been tied to heart valve
damage that develops years after a person has stopped taking it, a
new study reports.
The appetite suppressant fenfluramine has been banned in the United
States since 1997, because of its links to heart damage. Thousands
of lawsuits have been filed against the drug's manufacturers over
alleged damage it caused.
In the new study, published Nov. 5 in the journal BMC Medicine,
researchers looked at 5,743 people who had stopped using
fenfluramine more than a decade earlier but had damaged heart valves
up to seven years later.
"Valve problems were common in individuals exposed to fenfluramines,
more frequent in females, and associated with duration of drug use
in all valves assessed," research leader Charles Dahl, from the
Central Utah Clinic, said in a news release issued by the journal's
publisher.
Heart valves direct blood flow around the heart. If they fail, blood
back-flows -- called regurgitation -- and can cause congestive heart
failure and the need for heart valve surgery if severe enough.
"We found clear evidence for a strong, graded association between
duration of exposure to fenfluramines and prevalence of aortic
regurgitation and for mild or greater mitral and tricuspid
regurgitation, " Dahl said.
In all, 0.44 percent of these former fenfluramine users had valve
surgery resulting from the use of the drug, a sevenfold increase in
the risk for this procedure.
"This is probably a conservative estimate, as another study has
shown that there exists a 17- to 34-fold excess of clinically
apparent (presumably severe), valvular disease in persons who had
used fenfluramines for four months or longer," the authors wrote.
http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=621107
