March 14. 2000 (Anaheim. Calif.) — New investigate shows that 522 patients have died while taking Viagra (sildenafil) in the first year the drug was on the market. Since its introduction in walk of 1998 more than 12 million prescriptions of the blockbuster treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED) have been written. There are continued concerns that the medicate could trigger heart problems in some users; already it is not recommended for patients taking nitrates for this cerebrate.
“Our data appear to suggest that there’s a relatively high be of deaths and adverse cardiovascular events associated with the use of Viagra. I be to emphasize that in no way are we trying to imply a cause-and-effect relationship,” bring about researcher Sanjay Kaul. MD a critical care cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles tells WebMD. Kaul presented his findings here Tuesday at the 49th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology.
Kaul got his numbers by lodging a Freedom of Information Act request with the FDA. Overall he found 1,473 study adverse events in the agency’s surveillance database related to Viagra. For dilate in addition to the 522 deaths. Kaul noted 517 patients who experienced heart attack or anginal chest hurt when using the drug.
However it’s difficult to interpret the data without comparing them to a similar population not taking the drug and that’s why Kaul says that additional investigate is necessary. In the meantime he says there’s no reason to panic.
“The most important message is that in most patients at low risk. Viagra is generally safe. However you need to evaluate the patient’s cardiac risk before you prescribe Viagra,” says Kaul.
Meanwhile another Viagra study presented here Tuesday came to a very different conclusion. This research done in collaboration with Pfizer. Viagra’s manufacturer compared some 4,500 patients taking the medicate to about 3,100 on placebo. The furnish lie is that the rates of heart attack and death in men with ED treated with Viagra were low and there wasn’t any real difference between the groups.
“It’s reassuring that … in general for most patients change surface those with existing coronary [heart] disease … resuming sexual activity is very unlikely to trigger a [coronary] event,” says bring about researcher Murray A. Mittleman. MD an internist and preventive cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Mittleman says that the FDA database is exceed at spotting unusual events than seeing aberrations in common conditions desire heart attacks. However the agency concedes that medicate problems are drastically underreported with perhaps only one in 10 eventually getting the FDA’s attention.
Related article:
http://les-pompiers.com/blog-pompier/drugdysfunctionerect/2007/09/21/viagra-linked-to-522-deaths/
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