“The things we hate about ourselves aren't more real than things we like about ourselves.” Ellen Goodman


Monday, February 23, 2009

Highlighted report: Validation of VKORC1 and CYP2C9 genotypes on interindividual warfarin maintenance dose

Huang, Sheng-Wen, Chen, Hai-Sheng, Wang, Xian-Qun, Huang, Ling, Xu, Ding-Li, Hu, Xiao-Jia, Huang, Zhi-Hui, He, Yong, Chen, Kai-Ming, Xiang, Dao-Kang, Zou, Xiao-Ming, Li, Qiang, Ma, Li-Qin, Wang, Hao-Fei, Chen, Bao-Lin, Li, Liang, Jia, Yan-Kai, Xu, Xiang-Min

Objectives: To develop a warfarin-dosing algorithm that could be combined with pharmacogenomic and demographic factors, and to evaluate its effectiveness in a randomized prospective controlled clinical trial.

Methods: A pharmacogenetics-based dosing model was derived using retrospective data from 266 Chinese patients and multiple linear regression analysis. To prospectively validate this model, 156 patients with an operation of heart valve replacement were enrolled and randomly assigned to the group of pharmacogenetics-guided or traditional dosing for warfarin therapy. All patients were followed up for 50 days after initiation of warfarin therapy. The log-rank test was compared with the time-to-event (Kaplan-Meier) curves. Cox proportional hazards-regression model was used to assess the hazard ratio of the time to reach stable dose.

Results: The linear regression model derived from the pharmacogenomic model correlated with 54.1% of warfarin dosing variance. The final multiple linear regression model included age, body surface area, VKORC1, and CYP2C9 genotype. The study showed that the hazard ratio for the time to reach stable dose was 1.932 for the traditional dosing group versus the model-based group and a close and highly significant relationship was observed to exist between the predicted and the actual warfarin dose (R2=0.454).

Conclusion: A pharmacogenetics-based dosing algorithm has been developed for improvement in the time to reach the stable dosing of warfarin. This model may be useful in helping the clinicians to prescribe warfarin with greater safety and efficiency.




See also:


Estimation of the Warfarin Dose with Clinical and Pharmacogenetic Data.
The International Warfarin Pharmacogenetics Consortium.


BACKGROUND: Genetic variability among patients plays an important role in determining the dose of warfarin that should be used when oral anticoagulation is initiated, but practical methods of using genetic information have not been evaluated in a diverse and large population. We developed and used an algorithm for estimating the appropriate warfarin dose that is based on both clinical and genetic data from a broad population base. METHODS: Clinical and genetic data from 4043 patients were used to create a dose algorithm that was based on clinical variables only and an algorithm in which genetic information was added to the clinical variables. In a validation cohort of 1009 subjects, we evaluated the potential clinical value of each algorithm by calculating the percentage of patients whose predicted dose of warfarin was within 20% of the actual stable therapeutic dose; we also evaluated other clinically relevant indicators. RESULTS: In the validation cohort, the pharmacogenetic algorithm accurately identified larger proportions of patients who required 21 mg of warfarin or less per week and of those who required 49 mg or more per week to achieve the target international normalized ratio than did the clinical algorithm (49.4% vs. 33.3%, P<0.001,>/=49 mg per week). CONCLUSIONS: The use of a pharmacogenetic algorithm for estimating the appropriate initial dose of warfarin produces recommendations that are significantly closer to the required stable therapeutic dose than those derived from a clinical algorithm or a fixed-dose approach. The greatest benefits were observed in the 46.2% of the population that required 21 mg or less of warfarin per week or 49 mg or more per week for therapeutic anticoagulation.

Cost-effectiveness of using pharmacogenetic information in warfarin dosing for patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation.
Eckman MH, Rosand J, Greenberg SM, Gage BF.
University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0535, USA. mark.eckman@uc.edu


BACKGROUND: Variants in genes involved in warfarin metabolism and sensitivity affect individual warfarin requirements and the risk for bleeding. Testing for these variant alleles might allow more personalized dosing of warfarin during the induction phase. In 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration changed the labeling for warfarin (Coumadin, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey), suggesting that clinicians consider genetic testing before initiating therapy. OBJECTIVE: To examine the cost-effectiveness of genotype-guided dosing versus standard induction of warfarin therapy for patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. DESIGN: Markov state transition decision model. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE searches and bibliographies from relevant articles of literature published in English. TARGET POPULATION: Outpatients or inpatients requiring initiation of warfarin therapy. The base case was a man age 69 years with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation and no contraindications to warfarin therapy. TIME HORIZON: Lifetime. PERSPECTIVE: Societal. INTERVENTION: Genotype-guided dosing consisting of genotyping for CYP2C9*2, CYP2C9*3, and/or VKORC1 versus standard warfarin induction. OUTCOME MEASURES: Effectiveness was measured in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and costs were in 2007 U.S. dollars. RESULTS: In the base case, genotype-guided dosing resulted in better outcomes, but at a relatively high cost. Overall, the marginal cost-effectiveness of testing exceeded $170 000 per QALY. On the basis of current data and cost of testing (about $400), there is only a 10% chance that genotype-guided dosing is likely to be cost-effective (that is, <$50 000 per QALY). Sensitivity analyses revealed that for genetic testing to cost less than $50 000 per QALY, it would have to be restricted to patients at high risk for hemorrhage or meet the following optimistic criteria: prevent greater than 32% of major bleeding events, be available within 24 hours, and cost less than $200. LIMITATION: Few published studies describe the effect of genotype-guided dosing on major bleeding events, and although these studies show a trend toward decreased bleeding, the results are not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Warfarin-related genotyping is unlikely to be cost-effective for typical patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, but may be cost-effective in patients at high risk for hemorrhage who are starting warfarin therapy.

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