A prospective observational study on prescribing pattern of myocardial infarction in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

A prospective observational study was conducted in the Department of Cardiology at a Tertiary Care Hospital Kannur, Kerala including 120 patients for study duration of 6 months. The main objective of drug utilization research is to assess the rationality of drug use, associated drug interaction and co-morbidities in Myocardial Infarction. Kuppuswamy scale was utilized to determine the relationship between socio economic status with risk factors and statistical analysis was done using Spearmans Coefficient method. Information regarding demography, BMI, disease state co- morbidities, medical or medication history, risk factors, laboratory values and drugs prescribed were obtained by referring the case sheets and patient interview. The drug interactions were determined by Medscape drug interaction checker. The rationality of the treatment was assessed by reviewing the prescription pattern and comparing with the Standard Guidelines for MI. Atorvastatin (92.38%), heparin (92.23%) ad aspirin (39.57%) were most commonly prescribed in this hospital. The result suggests that the risk of MI increases with increasing age and frequently observed in male patients. Hypertension (82.39) and diabetes (49.98%) were the co-morbid conditions. The commonly prescribed drug classes or main indication in MI were antiplatelet (20.94%) followed by antihypertensives (16.82%), antianginal (13.13%), hypolipidemics (9.35%), anticoagulants (9.18%) and fibrinolytics (0.26%) respectively. Significant relationship was observed between education and income with risk factor (p<0.05).