DARE Study

A STUDY to determine whether there is a genetic reason for prescription drug-induced

arrhythmia is being carried out by St George’s, University of London.

The five-year DARE study will analyse the genetic make-up of patients who have developed the potentially fatal condition after taking certain medications, to see

if scientists can spot a pattern.

Patients in 300 acute trusts across England and Wales are being monitored in the study, the largest of its kind ever carried out.

A team of three nurses are travelling up and down the UK collecting blood samples from patients on a variety of drugs, which are then analysed by St George’s geneticists. Control samples (four per patient) are taken from people living in the same area and compared with the test results.

Already researchers have pinpointed at least 25 prescription drugs linked to arrhythmia.

Ventricular arrhythmias, disturbances of normal heart rhythms, can lead to blood clotting and strokes. They can cause fatalities through rhythm disorders of the heart such as prolongation of cardiac repolarisation, torsades de pointes and ventricular fibrillation.

The study is a collaboration between St George’s, University of London and the Drug Safety Research Unit in Southampton, funded by the British Heart Foundation. It was launched in 2003 and runs until the end of 2009.

The research is led by Professor John Camm and Elijah Behr. Professor Camm said: "What we want to do is detect a genetic reason for these reactions and determine whether it will be possible to predict which patients will be vulnerable to specific drugs.

"Fatal reactions to certain medications have generated public and medical concern due to their unpredictability, and the lack of understanding of their epidemiological and clinical

significance. Drugs such as astemizole and prenylamine have been withdrawn from the market because of this side-effect.

"The findings will result in safer prescribing and drug development."