[passing thru]

Has anyone been hearing anything about these drugs having the side effect , a rather common side effect it seems, of a- fib ??
I saw something about it on t.v. , but wasn't able to watch the full program.

[CHATSDALE]

i heard of it but i didn't get the message that it was a common side effect
need to try and look this up
post back if you hear anything definative

[TraumaICURN]

http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH...l?d=dmtContent

[P_RN]

I saw a brochure for the one Sally Field adverts....don't remember which and it mentioned rapid pulse. And it als said don't take if you have low blood calcium.And I do, but wouldn't that also lead to arrythmia of some sort....hey all I remember is bones.

[bigsyis]

Reclast is still not on the market,from what I heard on the TV news this week. According to what I heard, it should be at least the end of the year before it is available. It will be a "15 minute once a year IV infusion." However, Boniva is a once a month oral preparation, and if I remember correctly, Fosamax is once weekly. The question was in reference to Boniva and Fosamax. I work in a cardiology practice. We have two Cardiologists who specialize in electrophysiology (EP). I've never heard of the Boniva-Fosamax connection with atrial fib, but anything is possible. I'll check it out with our EP docs and let you all know what they say.

[lsyorke]

This link is a pharma blog, but it does reference the medical journal that this was discussed in.(you need to subscribe to see the medical journal)

http://pharmalot.com/2007/05/osteopo...ied_to_irr.php

[CRNI-ICU20]

Boniva also comes in an IV PUSH form, once a month. crni
I have given these, in the dr.'s office, with monitoring, and have not seen a problem. I suppose it does have a little to do with the calcium uptake, etc.
None of my patients had a problem.

[Reno1978]

OK - One perk as a student is I have access to many online journals. I just spend a long time reading NEJM looking for information on this.

The first study cited was for zoledronic acid (AKA Reclast or Zometa). It is a once-yearly IV injection for post-menopausal women to prevent osteoporosis. 3889 women received the med and 3876 did not. They received the infusions at baseline, at 12 months, at 24 months, and at 36 months. Of those that received the med, 50 (1.3%) had an event of serious a-fib and of the placebo group 20 (0.5%) had an event of serious a-fib. A serious a-fib event was defined as resulting in hospitalization or disability or life threatening. Although the occurences are low, the treatment group's occurences of serious a-fib events was significantly higher (statistically speaking). There was not, however, an increased risk of all adverse effects of a-fib...considering all occurences of a-fib, there were 94 (2.4%) events in the treatment group and 73 (1.9%) events in the placebo group

The other article is about the occurences of a-fib in a previous study done on alendronate (Fosamax). That study involved 6459 post-menopausal women and spanned 4 years. The final report provided to the FDA in 1997 showed there were 47 (1.5%) serious a-fib events for those taking Fosamax compared to 31 (1.0%) on placebo. The difference wasn't statistically significant. The risk for all a-fib events was 81 (2.5%) versus 71 (2.2%), also not considered statistically significant. So, it was suggested that a-fib would not be a major adverse effect of taking Fosamax.

Nothing is mentioned about Boniva in this issue.

[bigsyis]

Thanks for the info, Reno1978. Both of our EP Physicians are in the EP lab at the hospital today, but I sent them an email to see what they say. This is the first I've heard of it.

[Ortho_RN]

I will have to check tomorrow.. but our hospital will no longer administer those drugs, probably b/c of that connection... But I will read the memo tomorrow