More on ascitic fluid analysis

✍ Scribed by Anthony Boakye; William D. Carey; John C. Hoefs; Bruce A. Runyon

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1985
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 228 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0270-9139
• DOI: 10.1002/hep.1840050338

✦ Synopsis

My recent review of pharmacogenetics (1) quoted a misleading statement that a block in the metabolism of encainide would result in an absence of pharmacological effects from the drug. This statement, originally made in a paper from the United Kingdom ( 2 ) , indicated that the poor metabolizer phenotype is resistant to the antiarrhythmic effects of encainide because pharmacological activity resides in the principal metabolites of encainide rather than in the parent drug. As shown recently (3), the facts are that at sufficiently high plasma concentrations, encainide itself exerts antiarrhythmic effects (3). Antiarrhythmic activity occurs even in the poor metabolizer phenotype, albeit at several-fold higher plasma concentrations than usually develop in the extensive metabolism phenotype ( 3 ) . Because these observations were published recently, after my review on pharmaco-genetics was submitted, it is important to update the matter and indicate that encainide can be used effectively in the poor metabolizer phenotype.