Bepridil: contribution of serum assay to treatment monitoring

OBJECTIVE: Despite precise recommendations for prescription and monitoring, tosades de pointes is still observed with bepridil. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the contribution of bepridil serum assay in therapeutic supervision. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Seventy-five patients over 70 years of age were included. Prolongation of the QT interval was observed in 23 patients. RESULTS: The potential prognostic factors for increased QT interval as demonstrated by univariate logistic regression were hypokaliemia, bradycardia, renal failure and bepridil serum level. After multivariate logistic regression, the persisting causal factors for increased QT interval were hypokaliemia, bradycardia and bepridil serum level. CONCLUSION: Prolongation of the QT inter val remains dependent on several variables. Bepridil determination during treatment is insufficient alone.