Evaluation of the Rationality of Fixed Dose Combinations of Cardiovascular drugs in a Multispecialty Tertiary care hospital in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India

Plan: To assess theRationality of Fixed dose combinations (FDC) of Cardiovascular drugs in amultidisciplinary hospital in Coimbatore, India Prologue: Rationality of fixed dose combinations (FDC) containingcardiovascular drugs is one of the controversial and debated problems intoday’s health care practice. Research in this field has not been flourishedand limited data are available regarding rationality of fixed dosecombinations. A prospective and descriptive study was conducted in thecardiology and general medicine department of a 550 bedded multi-specialtytertiary care teaching hospital for a period of six months.Methodology: The rationality was assessed using seven-point criteria.Hundred prescriptions were analyzed during the study period which included 606cardiovascular drugs. Of these, 21.78% were cardiovascular fixed dosecombinations. The most commonly prescribed combinations were aspirin +clopidogrel (38.63%) followed by furosemide + spironolactone (15.9%) andtelmisartan + hydrochlorothiazide (12.88%). There were 18 different fixed dosecombinations of cardiovascular drugs. Among the combinations, 35.71% wererational with respect to all the seven criteria with a scoring of 14 (100%). Around11.11% combinations scored 13 while 55.56% scored 8 - 12 and 5.56% scored 7.Outcome: The results indicated that most of the prescribedcardiovascular FDCs in the multidisciplinary tertiary care hospital selectedwere rational and found to comply with the seven point criteria scale.Keywords: Fixed dose combinations (FDC), cardiovascular drugs &prescriptions, seven point scale assessment.