Are ECG monitoring recommendations before prescription of QT-prolonging drugs applied in daily practice? The example of haloperidol.

Purpose: Monitoring of the QT duration by electrocardiography (ECG) prior to treatment is frequently recommended in the label of QT-prolonging drugs. It is, however, unknown how often general practitioners in daily clinical practice are adhering to these risk-minimization measures. We assessed the frequency of ECG measurements in patients where haloperidol was initiated in primary care.

Increased risk of sudden cardiac arrest in obstructive pulmonary disease: a case-control study.

Background: We aimed to determine whether (1) patients with obstructive pulmonary disease (OPD) have an increased risk of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) due to ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation (VT/VF), and (2) the SCA risk is mediated by cardiovascular risk-profile and/or respiratory drug use.

Methods: A community-based case-control study was performed, with 1310 cases of SCA of the ARREST study and 5793 age, sex and SCA-date matched non-SCA controls from the PHARMO database. Only incident SCA cases, age older than 40 years, that resulted from unequivocal cardiac causes with electrocardiographic documentation of VT/VF were included.