Drug-Related Problems in Pulmonary Hypertension with Valvular Heart Disease

PURPOSE: The occurrence of drug-related problems (DRPs) and their causes specifically among pulmonary hypertension (PH) with valvular heart disease (VHD) has not been evaluated and is unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the percentage of occurrence, types, and causes of DRPs among PH with VHD patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: An observational retrospective study was conducted at Cardiology Centre, Hospital Serdang, from 1st January to 30th April 2021. Data were collected from medication charts, medical progress notes, laboratory and operative charts through electronic Health Information System (eHIS). The types and causes of DRPs were identified and classified based on Pharmaceutical Care Network of Europe's (PCNE) classification system V9.02. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

RESULTS: All patients (100%) experienced at least one DRP. Total number of DRPs identified was 120 encounters which were associated with 503 causes. The majority of problems were related to treatment effectiveness (59.1%) and treatment safety (33.4%). The causes of DRPs are mainly related to inappropriate monitoring including therapeutic drug monitoring (18.6%), inappropriate combination of drugs, or drugs and dietary/herbal supplement (10.3%), drug dose was too high (8.9%), drug dose was too low (8.2%) and inappropriate timing of administration or dosing intervals (7.7%).

CONCLUSION: The percentage of DRP occurrence was high in the studied population. Treatment effectiveness and treatment safety issues were the main DRPs identified with various preventable causes. The findings may be useful to guide the planning of measures to prevent and solve future DRPs in the population.