An Observational Study on Guideline Mediated Prescribing Pattern in Patients with Acute Decompensated Heart Failure

Abstract

Introduction: Studies on prescribing patterns are useful investigative instruments for figuring out how drugs function in society. Examining the prescription pattern is a crucial part of gauging the ability of medical professionals to choose a medication that will benefit patients to the fullest. The current study goals were to evaluate, using accepted guidelines, the general medicine department's practice of prescribing in accordance with guidelines in a tertiary care hospital and to assess the inclusion of drugs from essential drug list patients with acute decompensated heart failure. Methodology: Hospital based prospective case observational study was conducted for a period of six months after obtaining the permission from institutional ethical committee. The data was collected and analysed according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and necessary statistical testing like chi square test and pearson correlation were performed. Results and Discussion: Based on the study, the data of total 100 patients (n=100) were evaluated. Gender distribution of data shows high prevalence rate in males. The most commonly high susceptibility of disease age was found in  40-60 in males and females. The maximum number of patients were hospitalized for 6-7 days, hypertension was the most commonly found precipitating factor. Diuretics were prescribed maximum in the prescription. Out of 650 drugs the maximum number of drugs fall under the category of Anti-hypertensives. Most drugs are given through oral route. The American heart association (AHA) guidelines were assessed for drug prescription using IBM SPSS Statistics.  It was depicted that most of the prescriptions were in compliance with the guidelines. Conclusion: The results of our study conclude that prescribing practices were satisfactory according to the American college of cardiology guidelines. Keywords: Prescribing pattern, Guidelines, Acute heart failure, Anti-hypertensives.