Photo Credit: miodrag ignjatovic
The following is a summary of “Systemic adverse drug events to topical prostaglandin analogs for treating glaucoma: a retrospective focused pharmacovigilance study,” published in the December 2024 issue of Ophthalmology by Sridharan.
Prostaglandin analogs are commonly used as first-line treatments for open-angle glaucoma, effectively lowering intraocular pressure; however, systemic adverse drug events (ADEs) have been reported despite topical application.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to investigate systemic ADEs linked to topical prostaglandin analogs using the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) Adverse Drug Event Reporting System (AERS) database.
They extracted data from the USFDA AERS database for prostaglandin analog reports from March 2004 to March 2024. Data were deduplicated and analyzed using both frequentist and Bayesian disproportionality analysis methods. Only reports where topical prostaglandin analogs were the primary suspect for systemic ADEs were included. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics and chi-square tests for categorical variables.
The results showed that 30,853 reports were analyzed, with latanoprost and bimatoprost being the most common prostaglandin analogs involved. Most patients were elderly and female. Hypersensitivity reactions were the most frequent systemic adverse events. Latanoprost was associated with angina pectoris, atrial tachycardia, and Meniere’s disease, while bimatoprost was linked to lentigo maligna melanoma, and tafluprost to labyrinthitis and skin discoloration. Tafluprost had a notably higher mortality rate than other analogs, though a causal relationship could not be established due to missing data on temporality, confounding factors, and disease severity.
Investigators concluded that prostaglandin analogs, while effective for glaucoma, were associated with systemic ADEs, particularly hypersensitivity and cardiac events, with higher mortality observed for tafluprost, although causality could not be definitively established.
Source: bmcophthalmol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12886-024-03823-w
