Digoxin Toxicity

May 29, 2008

Digoxin toxicity has always been a major problem, due to the narrow range separating medically-effective digoxin levels from toxic levels of the drug. Now, with the recent mislabeling and mispackaging of digoxin that led to people being given digoxin doses equivalent to twice their prescribed dosage, and the subsequent recall, many people are concerned with digoxin toxicity.

Diagnosing Digoxin Toxicity

Digoxin toxicity is responsible for many nonspecific symptoms, making it very difficult to diagnose.These symptoms include:

· Visual changes, such as halos, unfocused vision, changes in color vision, even hallucinations

· Lethargy or drowsiness

· Confusion or euphoria

· Headaches

· Nausea and vomiting

· Diarrhea

· Abdominal pain

Toxicity can take minutes or hours to become evident. Acute toxicity generally manifests itself with nausea, vomiting, and lethargy, while chronic toxicity is usually signaled by visual changes, but can be very difficult to diagnose. The only way to actually diagnose digoxin toxicity is with blood tests.

Influences on Toxicity Levels

Unfortunately, digoxin can often be made more toxic by other factors in your body. This includes:

· High or low mineral levels, including elevated potassium or calcium levels, or depressed potassium or magnesium levels

· Kidney disease

· Hypothyroidism

· Low blood oxygen levels

· High blood pH

· Other medications, including:

o Beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, and other medications that affect your mineral levels

o Diuretics

o Antibiotics such as tetracycline that inactivate bacteria that can inactivate digoxin

These risk factors can dramatically affect the level of digoxin in your bloodstream, making it more likely that you will suffer digoxin toxicity with a lower dose.

Digoxin Resilience

In addition to digoxin’s narrow therapeutic range and its susceptibility to other factors in your body, another element that makes digoxin toxicity so dangerous is that digoxin tends to stay in your body for a long period of time after your toxic exposure.

Digoxin has what is known as a relatively long biological half-life. Biological half-life is the amount of time it takes for a drug or other substance in your body to lose half of its effect. This depends on the volume of blood in your body and the ability of your kidneys to filter the drug from your bloodstream. A normal half-life for digoxin ranges from 24-36 hours in a person with healthy kidneys.

However, because you were prescribed digoxin for regulating a dangerous heart condition, you cannot simply stop the medication once you realize you may have received twice your dosage, or you will experience a period in which you are exposed to the even greater danger of your heart condition. Instead, you will have to take your digoxin at the lower dosage and allow your body to stabilize the level of the drug in your blood, which usually takes about 4.7 times the biological half-life, or a week or more.

In addition, because chronic digoxin toxicity is difficult to diagnose, and occurs frequently without being detected, you may have been suffering from digoxin toxicity for a long time, but only detected it as a result of the Actavis error. In this case, you will need to be evaluated for chronic toxicity, and it may take much longer for your digoxin levels to regulate.

Click Here to speak to an attorney about this recall!

Were you affected? Click Here for a free case evaluation!

Comments

18 Responses to “Digoxin Toxicity”

theresa walsh on August 30th, 2008 3:15 pm

i was on digiteck for my irregular heart beat when they had the recall the dr put me on digioxn is this also bad for me
Lora White on March 15th, 2009 2:55 am

Digoxin can cause lung problems. My husband has heart failure and kidney failure but he almost died from lung failure and after a month in ICU a nephrologist made the connection. Upon stopping the Digoxin my husband recovered within 3 days.
gale moys on May 5th, 2009 8:49 pm

i had open heart surgery 2001, because I was born with two buckles in my heart. And I also had a irregular heart before and after the surgery. I was on digoxin,then digitek an nw back on digoxin. Is the digoxin safe or not. Please let me know my heart doctor has not taken me off. So, I’m sure if it was not he would have taken me off.

Thanks
» Blog Archive » Digitek Recall and Digitek Side Effects on May 27th, 2009 4:06 pm

[...] However, like most medications, Digitek has a host of potentially severe side effects. The rate at which these side effects occur increases as the dosage of the drug increases. Thus, when the makers of Digitek erred by mislabeling and mispackaging the drug so that patients were given much more than their prescribed dosage, many patients experienced negative side effects. This error led to the Digitek recall. [...]
A Carlton III on October 5th, 2009 11:23 am

I have ESRD and CHF and was taking Digitek. I have no clue if I have been affected by any of the side effects so does anyone know how I can be tested for any of the side effects?
Victoria on November 18th, 2009 5:38 pm

I was recently put on Digitek for my heart .However I have had some reactions to it that made me wonder why would anyone be put on an medicine that caused the reactions I had. My skin smelled like it was burning, I was seeing halos in my eyes.I caused me to have sharp shooting pains in my head.

My throat felt like it was closing up on me .I stopped taking it, No sooner I did. I had an overwhelming feeling that I was going to paas out…I felt confused not sure of myself…
Dianne Gleason on June 17th, 2010 7:59 pm

My Mother was put on Digoxin in ICU as her heart rate was dangerously high. That was in March….She was moved to a rehab nursing home to get her strength back but…..She had all the side effects listed above, drowsiness, vomiting, confusion, etc. She lost 20 lbs in 1 month and was then at a toxic level of digoxin. The Doctor was call and he started the weaning phase. After 4 days of watching her sleep all day and not eat ANYTHING she was starting to come out of the funk. Her heart rate has remained normal and she seems to be alive again. Her strength is still not good as she can’t walk alone, she is now in a wheelchair for how long? we dont know…6 months ago my MOTHER was living at home, driving to the mall for coffee with friends and now is mostly bed ridden. My Mom is 85 years old.
vera shepherd on October 21st, 2010 2:20 pm

my mother has been on digoxin for 6 weeks. She has heen having bad hallucinations from this for 4 weeks. Dr. took her off at once. She is still hallucinating bad. Dr said it is her not the mediction. It is her. Need any output you can give. Thanks!.
vera shepherd on October 21st, 2010 2:30 pm

My mom has been on digoxin for 6 weeks. Having hallucinations for 4 weeks When I called the Dr. he took her off it right away, but said it wasnt the medication giving her hallucination it was her. It is driving her crazy. How long will this take to get out of her system.?
Rickey on January 27th, 2011 8:07 pm

What affect does your blood alcohol have with this medicine,
Dorothy Hutton on February 19th, 2011 11:38 pm

I was take Digoxin in the of year 2001 and i take it until 2008 and i seen it on Tv about the recall on digoxin . and thay had a num. on T V, to callLawyer out grenada ms.
Dorothy Hutton on February 20th, 2011 12:04 am

they sent me a package from Grenada,ms ,and i filled out all of the form and sent them back but still no reply this was in 2008.
deni on February 23rd, 2011 2:30 pm

I have taken 15 tab of digoxin
deni on February 23rd, 2011 2:34 pm

0.25 mg each, and now i have chest pain. I have done all the examinations, everything was ok but I feel the chest pain anyway.. I don’t know what I have
jeannie on April 7th, 2011 4:25 am

my dad was put on Digoxin about 5 weeks ago, having hallucinations, heart rate as low as 33. Called the paramedics he was so out of it he refused, even with the fact he couldn’t hardly walk now, he had just been released from physical therapy doing great and now he is laying in I C U getting a central line put in to help combat the effects of toxicity. this drug needs to be black labeled permanently.
Elizabeth on September 4th, 2011 2:05 am

I had an episode of Supraventricular Tachycardia, paroxysmal and the Dr. put me on Digoxin. Aug. 15th, 2011, but I feel terrible, with SEVERE constipation, flu-like symptoms, Brainfog, nausea, headache, very weak especially in the knees and still have Arrhythmia with pounding heart beat. this makes me so depressed, I can hardly function. I want to quit. Before Digoxin they gave me Diltiazem, and before that they tried Metoprolol. I could not take both of these because of severe side effects with dizziness and lightheaded etc. I don’t know what to do. If I quit the Digoxin, can I die? Which is better, to live in misery and sick feeling or to stop the medication and take a chance of dying????? P.S. I have an Intra-atrial aneurhysm and Mitral Valve Prolapse.
debbie Maness on September 22nd, 2011 9:30 pm

My mom just got out of the hospital due to having digoxin toxicity. Her doctor is not taking responsibility for this and is trying to blaim my mom. My mom has the blurred vision lost 20 pounds in a week and has confusion and had 4 falls and dizzyness. Who can i call to find out more? My mom was taking twice the level due to mislabel.
mick r on November 26th, 2011 5:21 pm

Social Security Heart Dr in Harrisson Arkansas put me on tred mill to see if i really had tackacadia my heart rate went from 112 after 6 min on T MILL to 258 beats per min allmost killed me they thought i was just trying to get S S Dis well to end this comment the Dr from Harrison Arkansas put me Digoxin have stoped taking it can not stand to live like this am showing all side effects and will deal with my tackacadia in a different way Health food vitamins anyone know the allterative e mail me