Premium
The erythrocyte sodium and potassium in patients treated with digoxin.
Author(s) -
Morgan DB,
Cumberbatch M,
Cohn S,
Scott D,
Gunasuntharam T,
Davidson C,
Chapman C
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
british journal of clinical pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.216
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1365-2125
pISSN - 0306-5251
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2125.1980.tb01729.x
Subject(s) - digoxin , sodium , potassium , medicine , endocrinology , chemistry , heart failure , organic chemistry
1 Four healthy persons and ten patients with heart failure were studied for 5 to 20 days after they started taking digoxin. The sodium content of their erythrocytes increased and there was an equimolar decrease in potassium content. 2 The increase in erythrocyte sodium for a given increase in plasma digoxin during this acute digitalization was less on average and varied more in the patients than in the healthy persons, that is the patients' erythrocytes were less responsive to digoxin. 3 The average erythrocyte sodium was greater in 183 patients who had been taking digoxin for at least 2 months than in 100 healthy persons not taking digoxin but there was no significant correlation between the plasma digoxin concentrations and erythrocyte sodium concentration in the patients. Indeed, there was no apparent change in the erythrocyte sodium in many of the patients taking digoxin. 4 If the erythrocyte sodium concentration is a reliable guide to the tissue effects of digoxin then the results suggest that there is a wide variation in the response to digoxin between patients both during acute digitalization and during chronic treatment with digoxin.