The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors of drug-induced arrhythmia and drugs have a greater risk of causing it.From a search of the CARPIS (Case Reports of Adverse Drug Reactions and Poisoning Information System) database,which contains 43,000 case reports of adverse drug reactions,we obtained 251 cases of drug-induced arrhythmia which were assigned to a case group.We also selected 749 non-cardiac related adverse reactions at random and assigned them to a control group.Various data were compared between the case group and the control group and analyzed statistically.Comparing the 2 groups by means of logistic regression analysis revealed that the 4 patient background factors of woman post puberty (>18 years old),cardiovascular disease,hypokalemia and depression were associated with a significant greater risk of developing drug-induced arrhythmia.In addition,disopyramide,ritodrine,miconazole,halothane,thioridazine and sodium thiopental were found to significantly raise the risk of drug-induced arrhythmia.The findings of the present study should be helpful in preventing drug-induced arrhythmia and if it has already occurred,stopping it from becoming more serious.
