Drugs in the elderly with chronic kidney disease: beware of potentially inappropriate medications

Clinical Pertinence and Determinants of Potential Drug-Drug Interactions in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the major health issues effecting around 15% of world population, and its further complications has raised the need of polypharmacy for management. But this polypharmacy also upsurges the risk of potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) in CKD patients, which may further be responsible for increased morbidity and mortality. Objective: The main objective is therefore to evaluate the distribution, severity, causes, associated drug interactions, and clinical relevance of determination of pDDIs in CKD patients. Methods: Medical files of CKD patients examined at nephrology department, Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (MMIMSR), Mullana, between December 2022 and May 2023 were cross-sectionally assessed for this study. Medscape drug interaction checker was used to study patient profiles for pDDIs, and suggestive measures to minimize those pDDIs were studied using DDInter to ensure better clinical decision-making and patient safety. IBM SPSS (version 24) was utilized for statistical analysis. Results: The data reveal that 74.5% of the 200 medical files being evaluated had 839 pDDIs in total, out of which nearly 78.3% of patients had moderate, 15.6% had minor, and 6.07% had serious interactions. The potential adverse outcomes of pDDIs included an irregular heartbeat, hypokalemia, central nervous system (CNS) adverse effects, hypoglycemia, and a decline in therapeutic efficacy. The prevalence of pDDIs was discovered to be substantially correlated with age ≥60 years, (odds ratio [OR] = 0.65; 95% CI = 0.4-0.9; P = 0.040), length of stay ≥10 days (OR = 4.0; 95% CI = 1.29-6.1; P = 0.016), and number of prescribed drugs ≥10 (OR = 5.5; 95% CI = 2.45-10.69; P = 0.004). Conclusion: Patients with CKD have a high incidence of pDDIs (mainly mild to moderate). Older age, duration of hospital stays, and polypharmacy all raise the risk of pDDIs. Healthcare professionals (physicians and clinical pharmacist) should use drug interaction checker software programs like Medscape and DDInter to acquire knowledge about different pDDIS and their alternative measures so that the associated adverse drug reactions (ADRs) can be controlled and rational drug combination can be prescribed for management of CKD ensuring better patient care.

Risk Factors of Chronic Kidney Disease Progression: Between Old and New Concepts

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a condition characterized by the gradual loss of kidney function over time and it is a worldwide health issue. The estimated frequency of CKD is 10% of the world's population, but it varies greatly on a global scale. In absolute terms, the staggering number of subjects affected by various degrees of CKD is 850,000,000, and 85% of them are in low- to middle-income countries. The most important risk factors for chronic kidney disease are age, arterial hypertension, diabetes, obesity, proteinuria, dyslipidemia, and environmental risk factors such as dietary salt intake and a more recently investigated agent: pollution. In this narrative review, we will focus by choice just on some risk factors such as age, which is the most important non-modifiable risk factor, and among modifiable risk factors, we will focus on hypertension, salt intake, obesity, and sympathetic overactivity.

Polypharmacy, chronic kidney disease, and mortality among older adults: A prospective study of National Health and nutrition examination survey, 1999-2018

Introduction

Polypharmacy might contribute to a range of adverse outcomes, which could get worse in the elderly with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Evidence on polypharmacy, CKD, and mortality is scarce. We aimed to investigate the prospective association between polypharmacy, CKD and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in adults aged ≥65 years.

Methods

A total of 13,513 adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys were included, following up from 1999 to 2018 until December 31, 2019. The simultaneous use of ≥5 medications by one individual was defined as polypharmacy. Survey-weighted Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the hazard ratio (HRs) for mortality from all-cause, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and cancer after adjusting for potential confounding factors.

Results

Among the elderly with CKD, we identified 3,825 total deaths (1,325 CVD and 714 cancer) during a median follow-up of 7.7 years. Participants with polypharmacy had a 27% (HR = 1.27 [1.15, 1.39]) and 39% (HR = 1.39 [1.19, 1.62]) higher risk of all-cause and CVD mortality, respectively, but not for cancer mortality. Compared with the elderly with no polypharmacy and no CKD, the corresponding HRs (95%CIs) for all-cause mortality were 1.04 (0.96, 1.14) for those with no polypharmacy but CKD, 1.24 (1.11, 1.39) for with polypharmacy but no CKD, and 1.34 (1.21, 1.49) for those with both polypharmacy and CKD. A similar pattern was detected for CVD mortality.

Discussion

Polypharmacy was associated with elevated risks of all-cause and CVD mortality among the elderly CKD patients. More evidence-based approaches should be promoted for the appropriate deprescribing in the older adults with CKD.

Less is More: Deprescribing Medications in Older Adults with Kidney Disease: A Review

Due to age and impaired kidney function, older adults with kidney disease are at increased risk of medication-related problems and related hospitalizations. One proa ctive approach to minimize this risk is deprescribing. Deprescribing refers to the systematic process of reducing or stopping a medication. Aside from preventing harm, deprescribing can potentially optimize patients' quality of life by aligning medications with their goals of care. For some patients, deprescribing could involve less aggressive management of their diabetes and/or hypertension. In other instances, deprescribing targets may include potentially inappropriate medications that carry greater risk of harm than benefit in older adults, medications that have questionable efficacy, including medications that have varying efficacy by degree of kidney function, and that increase medication regimen complexity. We include a guide for clinicians to utilize in deprescribing, the List, Evaluate, Shared Decision-Making, Support (LESS) framework. The LESS framework provides key considerations at each step of the deprescribing process that can be tailored for the medications and context of individu al patients. Patient characteristics or clinical events that warrant consideration of deprescribing include limited life expectancy, cognitive impairment, and health status changes, such as dialysis initiation or recent hospitalization. We acknowledge patient-, clinician-, and system-level challenges to the depre scribing process. These include patient hesitancy and challenges to discussing goals of care, clinician time constraints and a lack of evidence-based guidelines, and system-level challenges of interoperable electronic health records and limited incentives for deprescribing. However, novel evidence-based tools designed to facilitate deprescribing and future evidence on effectiveness of deprescribing could help mitigate these barriers. This review provides foundational knowledge on deprescribing as an emerging component of clinical practice and research within nephrology.

Antibiotic dosing adjustments in hospitalized patients with chronic kidney disease: a retrospective chart review

BACKGROUND

Infections in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are a major cause of hospitalization. The pharmacokinetics of renally eliminated antibiotics may lead to drug accumulation, resulting in potential toxicity. The renal dosing adjustment of antibiotics is crucial to avoid toxicity and decrease mortality. In Lebanon, limited data are available on antibiotic dose adequacy in CKD.

OBJECTIVES

To estimate the prevalence of inappropriately dosed antibiotics in non-dialysis CKD patients and to identify possible risk factors that may be associated with unadjusted renal dosing.

METHODS

A retrospective chart review was conducted at two tertiary-care hospitals in Lebanon. International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) code for CKD was used to search the databases. Demographic and clinical data were collected for patients who received antibiotics that requires renal dosing adjustment. Lexi-Comp online Drug Information database was the guideline used to evaluate the appropriateness of dosing.

RESULTS

A total of 495 antibiotic orders were dispensed to 190 patients. 51.6% of patients received antibiotics without renal dose adjustments. The most inappropriately dosed class was penicillins (39.8%), while fluoroquinolones were the most adequately adjusted. Piperacillin/tazobactam was the most frequently prescribed drug (30.6%) without renal dose adjustment. Respiratory infections (OR 1.301, CI 95% 1.327-1.915) and multimorbidity (OR 1.183, CI 95% 1.358-2.081) were statistically highly significant associations for unadjusted antibiotic dosing from the fitted multivariable-adjusted logistic models.

CONCLUSION

Our study revealed a high frequency of guideline-discordant antibiotic dosing in patients with CKD. This dosing error is preventable by increasing awareness of prescribing physicians and collaborating with clinical pharmacists.

Potentially inappropriate prescribing in older adults with advanced chronic kidney disease

Background

Older adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at heightened risk for polypharmacy. We examined potentially inappropriate prescribing in this population and whether introducing pharmacists into the ambulatory kidney care model was associated with improved prescribing practices.

Methods

Retrospective cohort study using linked administrative databases. We included patients with an eGFR ≤30 mL/min/1.73 m² ≥66 years of age followed in multidisciplinary kidney clinics in Ontario, Canada (n = 25,016 from 28 centres). The primary outcome was the absence of a statin prescription or the receipt of a potentially inappropriate prescription defined by the American Geriatric Society Beers Criteria^® and a modified Delphi panel that identified key drugs of concern in CKD. We calculated the crude cumulative incidence and incidence rate for the primary outcome and used change-point regression to determine if a change occurred following pharmacist introduction.

Results

There were 6,007 (24%) and 16,497 patients (66%) not prescribed a statin and with ≥1 potentially inappropriate prescription, respectively. The rate of potentially inappropriate prescribing was 125.6 per 100 person-years and was higher in more recent years. The change-point regression analysis included 2,275 patients from two centres. No immediate change was detected at pharmacist introduction, but potentially inappropriate prescribing was increasing pre-pharmacist introduction, and this rising trend was reversed post-pharmacist introduction. The incidence of potentially inappropriate prescribing still remained high post-pharmacist introduction.

Conclusions

Potentially inappropriate prescribing practices were common. Incorporating pharmacists into the kidney care model may improve prescribing practices. The role of pharmacists in the ambulatory kidney care team warrants further investigation in a randomized controlled trial.

Nephrology comanagement and the quality of antibiotic prescribing in primary care for patients with chronic kidney disease: a retrospective cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

In primary care, patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are frequently prescribed excessive doses of antibiotics relative to their kidney function. We examined whether nephrology comanagement is associated with improved prescribing in primary care.

METHODS

In a retrospective propensity score-matched cross-sectional study, we studied the appropriateness of antibiotic prescriptions by primary care physicians to Ontarians ≥66 years of age with CKD Stages 4 and 5 (estimated glomerular filtration rate <30 mL/min/1.73 m2 not receiving dialysis) from 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2014. Comanagement was defined as having at least one outpatient visit with a nephrologist within the year prior to antibiotic prescription date. We compared the rate of appropriately dosed antibiotics in primary care between 3937 patients who were comanaged by a nephrologist and 3937 patients who were not.

RESULTS

Only 1184 (30%) of 3937 noncomanaged patients had appropriately dosed antibiotic prescriptions prescribed by a primary care physician. Nephrology comanagement was associated with an increased likelihood that an appropriately dosed prescription was prescribed by a primary care physician; however, the magnitude of the effect was modest [1342/3937 (34%); odds ratio 1.20 (95% confidence interval 1.09-1.32); P < 0.001].

CONCLUSION

The majority of antibiotics prescribed by primary care physicians are inappropriately dosed in CKD patients, whether or not a nephrologist is comanaging the patient. Nephrologists have an opportunity to increase awareness of appropriate dosing of medications in primary care through the patients they comanage.

Effects of Early Frequent Nephrology Care on Emergency Department Visits among Patients with End-stage Renal Disease

In this retrospective cohort study, we examined the association between predialysis nephrology care status and emergency department (ED) events among patients with end-stage renal disease. Data pertaining to 76,702 patients who began dialysis treatment between 1999 and 2010 were obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan (NHIRD). The patients were divided into three groups based on the timing of the first nephrology care visit prior to the initiation of maintenance dialysis, and the frequency of nephrologist visits (i.e., early referral/frequent consultation, early referral/infrequent consultation, late referral). At 1-year post-dialysis initiation, a large number of the patients had experienced at least one all-cause ED visit (58%), infection-related ED visit (17%), or potentially avoidable ED visit (7%). Cox proportional hazard models revealed that patients who received early frequent care faced an 8% lower risk of all-cause ED visit (HR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.90⁻0.94), a 24% lower risk of infection-related ED visit (HR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.73⁻0.79), and a 24% lower risk of avoidable ED visit (HR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.71⁻0.81), compared with patients in the late referral group. With regard to the patients undergoing early infrequent consultations, the only marginally significant association was for infection-related ED visits. Recurrent event analysis revealed generally consistent results. Overall, these findings indicate that continuous nephrology care from early in the predialysis period could reduce the risk of ED utilization in the first year of dialysis treatment.

Clinical relevancy and determinants of potential drug-drug interactions in chronic kidney disease patients: results from a retrospective analysis

Background

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) alters the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic responses of various renally excreted drugs and increases the risk of drug-related problems, such as drug–drug interactions.

Objectives

To assess the pattern, determinants, and clinical relevancy of potential drug–drug interactions (pDDIs) in CKD patients.

Materials and methods

This study retrospectively reviewed medical charts of all CKD patients admitted in the nephrology unit of a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan from January 2013 to December 2014. The Micromedex Drug-Reax^® system was used to screen patient profiles for pDDIs, and IBM SPSS version 20 was used to carry out statistical analysis.

Results

We evaluated 209 medical charts and found pDDIs in nearly 78.5% CKD patients. Overall, 541 pDDIs were observed, of which, nearly 60.8% patients had moderate, 41.1% had minor, 27.8% had major, and 13.4% had contraindicated interactions. Among those interactions, 49.4% had good evidence, 44.0% had fair, 6.3% had excellent evidence, and 35.5% interactions had delayed onset of action. The potential adverse outcomes of pDDIs included postural hypotension, QT prolongation, ceftriaxone–calcium precipitation, cardiac arrhythmias, and reduction in therapeutic effectiveness. The occurrence of pDDIs was found strongly associated with the age of <60 years, number of prescribed medicines ≥5, hypertension, and the lengthy hospitalization of patients.

Conclusion

The occurrence of pDDIs was high in CKD patients. It was observed that CKD patients with an older age, higher number of prescribed medicines, lengthy hospitalization, and hypertension were at a higher risk of pDDIs.