Old Heart Drug Digoxin Has New Safer Way to Dose

Filed in archive Treatment on December 17, 2006

Digoxin is an old heart drug that helps an injured or weakened heart to work efficiently, strengthening the force of the heart muscle's contractions and helping to restore a normal, steady heart rhythm.

However this medication is difficult to dose, threading the thin line between beneficial and deadly.

Now, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy was able to develop a new formula that will help physicians prescribe the proper amount of the powerful heart drug digoxin.

According to Jerry Bauman, interim dean of the UIC College of Pharmacy and lead investigator of the study:

"Because the new therapeutic window of digoxin is associated with improved outcomes, more intensive dosage refinement should be considered. To this end, we offer new dosing recommendations and a nomogram for determining the initial dose of digoxin in patients with heart failure.

This is a new way to dose an old drug."

Read the full report at UIC News.