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A Prospective Survey of the Incidence of Cardiac Intoxication with Digitalis in Patients being Admitted to Hospital and Correlation with Serum Digoxin Levels
Author(s) -
Howard Diane,
Smith C. I.,
Stewart G.,
Vadast M.,
Tiller D. J.,
Hensley W. J.,
Richards J. G.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 0004-8291
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-5994.1973.tb03096.x
Subject(s) - medicine , digoxin , incidence (geometry) , digitalis , emergency medicine , prospective cohort study , pediatrics , intensive care medicine , heart failure , physics , optics
Summary: A prospective survey of the incidence of digitalis toxicity and its correlation with plasma digoxin levels determined by radioimmunoassay has failed to show any difference between plasma levels of digoxin in toxic and non‐toxic patients. There was no difference in renal function or in biochemical parameters between the two groups. An irregular pulse was found more commonly in the toxic patients but otherwise symptoms and signs were the same in two groups. In view of these findings we believe levels of plasma digoxin in an individual patient may not necessarily indicate toxicity especially where there is no relationship between the time of giving the drug and taking of the blood sample.